E.H.LEWINSKI-CORWIN
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
SAN DIEGO
withdrawn
THE
POLITICAL HISTORY
OF
POLAND
By
EDWARD H. LEWINSKI-CORWIN, Ph. D.
"GLI UOMINI LlBERI SONO FRATELLI."
Motto of the Polish Legions of the Napoleonic Era.
NEW YORK
THE POLISH BOOK IMPORTING COMPANY
1917
Copyright, 1917
By EDWARD H: LEWINSKI-CORWIN
Preface
The Great War has placed the Polish Question foremost
among the political problems which must be solved at the close
of the present hostilities.
With the progress of the war has come increased oppor-
tunity for a just and equitable recognition of Poland's national
and political rights. Russia and the Central Powers have been
outbidding each other in their promises to Poland. As a mat-
ter of expediency, by their act of November 5, 1916, the Central
Powers allowed that part of Poland which was under Russian
rule prior to the outbreak of the war to be organized into a
Polish state. The contingencies of the war as well as the
pressure brought to bear upon the governments of Germany
and Austria-Hungary by the Poles forced the two Emperors
to proclaim this act. They did it reluctantly and after long
delay, realizing that it was a step toward a truly independent
Polish state and that such a state is unthinkable without an
outlet to the sea which can be obtained only by the cession of
the Polish possessions now held by Prussia and without
Galicia, where Polish national life has had its fullest and most
intense expresLion. During the present war Galicia has borne
the same relation to Poland's independence as Piedmont, in
Cavour's time, bore to the unification and liberation of Italy.
Whatever motives the Central Powers may have had in
proclaiming Poland's independence and whatever plans they
might have laid for its future undoing, by this act they have
put the Polish Question on an international basis and have
made Russia's earlier promises for Polish autonomy under
Russian sovereignty appear very insignificant. What is more
important, however, is that they have thus made it possible for
Poland to express in no mistaken terms her demand for com-
plete independence and to take the preliminary steps toward
the organization of her own political state.
As Mr. J. H. Harley, editor of the "Polish Review," pub-
lished in London, says: "Poland is fully abreast of the most
progressive western ideas, and by 'independence' she does not
mean simply freedom of speech or power to regulate her own
economic system, not simply the power of administering laws
made for her by another, but the free and unfettered liberty
to realize her own legislative ideas, the right to raise and con-
trol her own army and to manifest her own public policy amid
the nations of Europe." *
The Poles have fully demonstrated that they are well able
to resume an independent state existence, not only by their
accomplishments in Galicia under home rule, but by the re-
markable achievements in the other sections of Poland as well,
despite the indescribable oppression of Russia and Prussia.
During the course of the present war, with most meagre re-
sources, unaided they have accomplished wonders of organ-
ization by enlightened self-help and unity of purpose.
To quote Mr. Herbert Adams Gibbons : "In considering
the fitness for independence it is just as absurd to hark back
to the weakness and the faults of Poland of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, as to judge Germany and Italy of
to-day by the Germans and Italians of two hundred years ago.
It is what the Poles are to-day that counts. The reconstitution
of Poland as an independent state is not only a wise political
step in establishing a durable peace, but is also an act of justice
to one of the largest and best races of Europe, which has pur-
chased the right to be free by heroic sacrifices willingly made
and by the abiltiy amply demonstrated to survive and thrive
through four generations of persecution . . . The creation of
an artificial buffer state closely allied in race and sympathies
with one or the other of the rival powers or too weak to resist
her neighbors would be a makeshift and a farce. But the
Poles are neither pro-German nor pro-Russian, nor are they
weak. In numbers, in brains, in vitality, in wealth, in unity
of spirit, they are stronger to-day than ever in their history,
"The Polish Review," London, January 1917, p. 15.
VI
and as an independent nation would very rapidly become the
seventh great power of Europe." *
The present volume has been undertaken with a view of
presenting an accurate account of the political and social evolu-
tion of Poland, based especially and largely on Polish sources
of information. There are very few works in the English
language which reveal a true understanding of Polish history.
They are either prejudiced and unfriendly or sentimental and
uncritical.
The author of this volume strove to steer clear of ex-
tremes. It has been his endeavor to present to the American
public a coherent and yet not too extended account of the
development of the country and to indicate the causes of the
phenomenal growth and the subsequent decline and disappear-
ance of the Polish state. He also endeavored to give his read-
ers a description of Polish life and struggles during the period
following the partitions of the country and to construct, from
the fragments he was able to gather, as accurate and complete
-a picture as possible of the events which took place in Poland
from the beginning of the war until the overthrow of the autoc-
racy of Russia and the entry of the United States into the
war, the two outside circumstances which will have a powerful
bearing upon the equitable solution of the Polish Question.
As long as Russia continued to be a rapacious, imperial-
istic autocracy, Poland's future could only be a dark one. The
relations, however, of an independent Polish state, within
properly drawn boundaries, to a truly democratic and unag-
gressive Russian republic cannot be anything but neighborly
and harmonious. The participation of the United States in the
war assures to it a potent influence in the post-bellum settle-
ment of European questions, which will be exercised for the
promotion of justice and democracy. What the attitude of the
United States toward the Polish Question will be, has been
* "The Future of Poland," The Century Magazine, New York,
December 1916, pp. 191-192.
VII
foretold in the memorable address of President Wilson to the
Senate on January 22, 1917, when he spoke for a "united, inde-
pendent and autonomus" Poland. It is the hope of the author
that this volume may contribute in a modest measure to the
understanding of the life and aspirations of the Polish nation.
In order to vivify the text and to visualize some of the
cultural achievements of Poland, the book has been very fully
illustrated. The selection of illustrations has been the best
that could be made under conditions obtaining during the war,
which rendered communication with Poland very difficult.
Only such material was available as could be obtained in
America.
Thanks are due to the publishers for the painstaking ef-
forts in securing the illustrations and also to all those who
co-operated in this as well as in other respects.
The author is under obligation to Professor Franklin H.
Giddings and Professor James T. Shotwell of Columbia Uni-
versity, and to Mr. Clarence M. Abbott, who read large parts
of the manuscript, for their encouragement and valuable sug-
gestions.
He also wishes to express sincere chanks to all his friends
who helped in proof-reading and in the preparation of the
index.
Few references have been given throughout the book be-
cause the great majority of the works consulted in the prepara-
tion of the volume are in Polish. It was considered inadvisable
to distract the reader's attention by reference to sources which
he could not consult. It may, however, be added that the
recognized standard histories of Poland and only the most
reliable sources were used.
In order to facilitate the pronunciation of Polish names a
key to pronunciation has been appended to the volume.
E. H. L-C.
New York, April, 1917.
VIII
Contents
Page.
CHAPTER I. Early Poland.
First Settlements of the Slavs 1
Growth of Military Organization 5
Social and Political Structure of Early Slavic Life 8
Religion of the Early Slavs 10
CHAPTER II. Beginnings of the Polish State.
Influence of the Roman Catholic Church 12
Growth of the State 16
Relation of Poland to the German Empire 21
Alliance with the Holy See 24
Polish Laws of Inheritance . 26
CHAPTER III. The Decline of Monarchical Power.
Prerogatives of the Grand Duke of Cracow 30
Restriction of the Sovereign Power of the Princes 34
German Settlements in Poland 35
Jewish Immigration to Poland 40
CHAPTER IV. The Consolidation of Poland.
Acquisition of Pomerania 42
Polish Crusade Against the Prussians 45
Causes of Political Consolidation 46
Difficulties with the Knights of the Cross and the Disloyalty of the
German Settlers 49
Lokietek's Proclamation of Poland's Political Sovereignty and the
Ensuing Wars 52
Acquisition of Ruthenian Territories 55
Internal Reforms 55
CHAPTER V. The Union with Lithuania.
Extinction of the Piast Dynasty 64
Origin of Special Concessions in Favor of the Nobility 66
First Civil War Over Royal Succession 66
Union with Lithuania in Defence Against Teuton Aggressiveness.. 68
Social and Political Significance of the Union 69
University of Cracow 71
Importance of the Union for Lithuania 77
Defeat of the Order of the Cross 80
IX
Page.
CHAPTER VI. Oligarchal Rule in Poland.
Settlement of Difficulties with Lithuania 85
Growth of the Special Privileges of the Nobility 86
Ascendency of Ecclesiastical Power 89
Suppression of Hussitism in Poland 91
Turkish Campaign for the Liberation of the Balkan Slavs 92
Subordination of the Church to the State 94
Struggle with the Oligarchy 97
Prussia's Request for Admission into the Polish State 98
Extension of Polish Influence to Hungary and Bohemia 101
Turkish and Muscovite Perils 101
Humanism in Poland 102
CHAPTER VII. The Republic of Nobles.
Beginning of Serfdom 106
Growth and Decline of the Polish Cities ; . . . 108
Growth of Political Power of the Nobility 122
Mazovia 131
Duchy of East Prussia 131
Ukraine 133
Lack of Adequate Miltary Preparedness 136
CHAPTER VIII. The Protestant Reformation and the Golden Age
in Poland.
Precursors of the Reformation 137
Growth of the Reformation Movement 139
Unpopularity of the Movement Among the Lower Classes 142
Cultural Effects of the Reformation 142
Protestant Sects 150
Collapse of the Effort to Establish a National Church 151
CHAPTER IX. The End of the Jagiellon Dynasty and the Begin-
ning of the Era of Popular Election of Kings.
Zygmunt II August, 1548-1572 153
Restitution of Alienated Crown Lands 156
Cities Ruined by Unwise Economic Legislation 157
War with Ivan the Terrible, 1562-1571 158
Acquisition of Inflanty or Livonia, 1561 159
Hereditary Union of East Prussia with Brandenburg, 1563 160
Union of Lublin, 1569 160
Death of the Last Jagiellon, 1572 164
Cowl Confederacy 164
X
Page.
"Viritim" Elections 166
Warsaw Confederacy and the Statute of Religious Tolerance, 1573. . . 166
Election of Henri Valois, 1573 167
King's Flight in 1574 168
Royal Elections Afforded Opportunity for Foreign Monarchs to
Meddle in Polish Internal Affairs 169
"i i ii '^
CHAPTER X. The Catholic Reaction.
Reforms of Stefan Batory, 1576-1586 170
Bigotry of Zygniunt Vasa, 1587-1632 177
Growth of Jesuit Influence 180
Rebellion Against the King 184
War with Muscovy 185
Echoes of the Thirty Years' War 186
Uniate Church 188
CHAPTER XI. The Polish Constitution.
The Polish Republic 192
The King 193
The Elections 193
Powers and Duties of the King 195
Offices 196
Incompatibilia 198
The Diet 198
Canfederacies 201
Administration of Justice 203
Finances 204
National Defence 205
Legal Status of the Various Classes of the Population 208
CHAPTER XII. The Cossack Wars.
Political and Economic Conditions of the Country in the First Half
of the XVIIIth Century 224
Entanglements of Foreign Policy 230
Conditions on the Ukrainian Frontier 234
Chmielnicki's Rebellion, 1648 239
Further Cossack Wars 241
CHAPTER XIII. The Passing of Poland's Position as a Great
Power.
Causes of the War with Sweden, 1655-1660 249
Treason of the Polish Nobility 250
Uprising of the People , 251
XI
Page.
Swedish Alliance and the Polish League 253
Defeat of Sweden and the Peace of Oliva, 1660 255
Growth of Religious Fanaticism 255
Causes of the War with Muscovy, 1658-1667 256
Rebellion of Lubormirski, 1666 257
Truce of Andrushov 260
Ascending Star of John Sobieski 260
Abdication of King John Kazimir, 1668 261
Political Corruption 261
King Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki, 1669-1673 262
Turkish War and the Treaty of Buczacz, 1672 263
Golomb Confederacy 264
Victory Over the Turks at Chocim, 1673 264
King John III Sobieski, 1674-1696 265
Peace of Zoravno, 1676 268
Alliance With Austria, March, 1683 269
Battle of Vienna, 1683 270
Holy League Against Turkey 273
Political Anarchy and Sobieski's Death, 1696 274
CHAPTER XIV. The Disintegration of Political Sovereignty.
Election of August of Saxony, 1697 276
Close of Hostilities with Turkey, 1698 277
Beginning of the Northern War, 1700-1721 278
Election of Leszczynski 1704, and the Civil War 281
Abdication of August II, 1706 281
Russian Campaign and the Battle of Poltava, 1709 282
Withdrawal of Leszczynski, 1710 283
Russian Intervention in Poland 283
The Civil War, 1715-1717 284
First Dumb Diet, 1717 285
Religious Intolerance 285
Union of the "Three Black Eagles," and August's Death, 1773 286
Interregnum, 1733-1735, and the Second Election of Leszczynski 287
Russian Interference and August III , 288
Dzikow Confederacy, 1734 289
August III, 1733-1763, and his times 289
Intellectual and Political Awakening 291
Stanislav Konarski 293
Reform Parties 294
Last Royal Election, May 7, 1764 296
Stanislav August Poniatowski, 1764-1795 300
XII
Page.
Reforms of the "Family" 300
Russian Intrigue Against the "Family" 301
Radom Confederacy, 1767 302
Second Dumb Diet, 1768 303
Bar Confederacy, 1768-1772 304
CHAPTER XV. The Three Partitions.
First Partition, August 5, 1772 310
End of the Bar Confederacy 312
Spoils of Russia, Prussia and Austria 312
Diet of 1773 and the Treaty of Cession 314
First State Board of Education in Europe 315
Changes in the Constitution and the Permanent Council 319
Improvement in Economic and Social Conditions 321
Renaissance in Art and Science 323
The Reform Party 328
The Opposition 329
Political Conferences with Catherine at Kaniow 330
Project of a Russo-Polish Alliance 331
The Four Years' Diet, 1788-1792 332
Alliance with Prussia, 1790 332
Accomplishments of the Four Years' Diet 334
Constitution of May 3, 1791 336
Provisions of the New Constitution 339
Foreign Hostility to the New Constitution 342
Confederacy of Targowica 343
Second Partition of Poland, 1793 345
The Last Diet 346
The Rising of Kosciuszko, 1794 349
Third Partition of Poland, 1795 355
CHAPTER XVI. Napoleon and the Duchy of Warsaw.
Attitude of England and France Toward the Polish Tragedy 356
Post Partition Regime in Poland 357
Hopes and Plans of the Polish Patriots 359
The Polish Legions 361
Pro-Russian Turn in Polish Politics and Czartoryski's Plans 368
Defeat of Prussia and Napoleon's Promises to Poland 372
Treaty of Tilsit, 1807 374
The Duchy of Warsaw, 1807-1815 375
Economic Problems 381
War with Austria and the Conquest of Galicia, 1809 382
XIII
Page.
Franco-Prussian War 386
End of the Duchy of Warsaw 389
CHAPTER XVII. The Congress of Vienna and the Kingdom of
Poland.
Fifth Partition of Poland 396
Republic of Cracow 399
Grand Duchy of Posen 401
Galicia 402
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland 403
The Reaction 411
Secret Patriotic Societies 415
Persecutions in Lithuania 417
Trial of Members of the Polish National Patriotic Society 420
Coronation of Nicholas I at Warsaw 422
The Outbreak of the Uprising 423
CHAPTER XVIII. The War with Russia and the Aftermath.
Causes of the Polish Failure 426
Dilatory Tactics 427
The Uprising Turns into a Regular War 431
Deposition of Tsar Nicholas 1 432
The Dictatorship of Skrzynecki 434
The Close of the War 441
Immediate Consequences of the War 443
Reflection in Literature of the National Tragedy 446
Adam Mickiewicz 447
Juliusz Slowacki 451
Zygmunt Krasinski 454
The Emigrants 458
The Further Consequences of the Polish War with Russia 461
Revolutionary Activities 463
End of the Cracow Republic and the Slaughter of the Galician Gentry 464
The Year 1848 466
The Reaction 468
Illegal Annexation of the Congressional Kingdom to the Russian
Empire 470
CHAPTER XIX. The Uprising of 1863 and the Era of Positivism.
Shattering of Polish Hopes by Tsar Alexander II 471
Political Demonstrations 474
Wielopolski's Administration 479
XIV
Page.
Rising of the Revolutionary Tide 481
Shortlived Polish Home-Rule 484
The Revolution of 1863 487
The End of the War 493
Vengeance of the Russian Government 494
The Lot of Lithuania 496
The Censorship 499
The Era of Positivism and Its Reflection in Literature 502
Social and Economic Changes Following the Collapse of the Revolution 513
Socialism and the People's Party : 518
Brutality of the Prussian Regime 521
Galician Home-Rule 527
The Ruthenian Problem 541
CHAPTER XX. Constitutional Russia and- the Poles.
Russo-Japanese War and the Political Awakening of Russia 546
Severity of the Russian Rule 549
Suppression of Polish Educational Activities 551
Attitude of the Duma Toward the Poles 554
Polish Representation in the Duma 557
The Jewish Problem 559
CHAPTER XXI. The Polish Question and the Great War.
The Re-Opening of the Polish Question 668
The Polish Policy and Military Preparedness 570
The Supreme National Committee 575
The Manifesto of Grand Duke Nicholas 578
The Growth of the Polish Legions 581
The International Status of the Polish Question 585
Russian Rule During the War 586
The Fall of Warsaw and the Dubious Policy of the Central Empires. . 589
Polish Self-Help During the War 59i
The Heroism of the Polish Legions 595
Joseph Pilsudski and the Forcing of the Polish Issue 598
The Proclamation of Poland's Independence, November 5, 1916 603
The Provisional Polish Government 605
The Solution of the Polish Question 609
KEY TO PRONUNCIATION 615
INDEX . 617
XV
FIG. 1 HISTORICAL, PROCESSION
Sculpture by W. Szymanowski.
CHAPTER I.
Early Poland -. - ! / .
The classical and generally accepted historical
theory designates central Europe and the mountain
sides of the Carpathians as the habitat
of the Slavs several centuries before
Settlements ,, . , . i i
of the Slavs Christ. According to this theory, the
Prussians, Lithuanians, Letts, Jadz-
wings and Zmuds lived to the north and east of the
Slavs, and the Ugro-Finnish peoples surrounded
them in a great semicircle from the north of Riga to
the lower Volga.
Recent studies based on linguistic data and on
geographic nomenclature indicate that the distribu-
tion of peoples in the east of Europe was different
from what was hitherto believed. According to these
later studies, the Carpathians were originally in-
habited by the Teutons; close to them on the west
were the Celts; the Prussians, Lithuanians and Letts
lived to the north, in the region now known as the
province of Minsk. The Ugro-Finns had their settle-
ments along the middle Volga, stretching from there
through what is now central Russia to northern
Poland and Prussia. Wedged in between these
peoples were the ancient aboriginal Slavs, with their
settlements along the River Niemen. The oldest
names of these settlements were of an Indo-European
and not Ugro-Finnish origin. It was only much later,
about the beginning of our era, that the Slavs, pressed
THE' POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
by the Ugro-Finnish peoples, who originally oc-
cupied the middle course of the Volga, moved further
south, and occupied the abandoned settlements of the
Teutonic and Celtic peoples, who migrated further
EARLY POLAND 3
west. It was then only that the Carpathians and the
Vistula became the cradle of the Slavs, whence they
spread in all directions in the first century after
Christ. They reached the Don on the east, the Baltic
on the north, the Adriatic on the south, and went as
far as the River Rhine on the west.
Archeology has not as yet determined the west-
ern-most boundaries of Slavdom. The primitive cus-
tom of the Slavs of burning their dead, which lasted
throughout the Stone Age and well into the Bronze,
has deprived us of the oldest anthropological ma-
terials. It was not until the beginning of the Iron
Age that burial was added to the ancient custom of
incineration. In time, burial superseded the older
custom almost completely and osseous remains, to-
gether with abundant decorations, implements, uten-
sils and arms are found in the tier graves of the west-
ern Slavs as well as in the mounds of the east. For a
long time the differences between the Slavic and Fin-
nish graves in the east, and between the Slavic
and Teutonic graves in the west, could not be defi-
nitely established. Thanks to the painstaking labors
of the Danish archeologist, Sophus Miiller, our
knowledge of the matter has become more exact, and
we can now distinguish between the Slavic and the
Teutonic graves of the earlier (incineration) as well
as of the later (burial) periods. The distinguishing
features of the Slavic graves are ear chains made up
of a number of circular "chopper-links" (Hacker-
ringe), rings and earrings, made of twisted bronze
wire, wooden pails with iron hoops, urns and earthen-
ware of a peculiar shape, with carved, undulating and
linear ornamentation on the outside surface. This
contribution of archeology has thrown great light
on the prehistoric anthropology of the Slavs and
changed the view that the prehistoric Slav was of a
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 2
FIG. 3
OBJECTS FOUND IN SLAVIC GRAVES BY WHICH THEY CAN BE DIS-
TINGUISHED FROM TEUTON AND FINNISH GRAVES
(Reproduced from Prof. J. Talko-Hryncewicz. i
brachocephalic type. This was inferred from the
fact that the brachocephalic type is prevalent among
the present day Slavs. The dolichocephalic skulls
found in the excavations in Russia and Poland were
EARLY POLAND 5
attributed to the Teutons, and no attention was paid
to the objects found with the skulls. Modern criteria
established the fact that the Slav settlements existed
not only at the mouth of the Vistula and on the
shores of the Baltic along the Elbe and Oder, but ex-
tended as far as the Rhine.
The westernmost outposts of the Slavs were very
early annihilated by the Teutons, who pushed the
Slavs toward the east. This early German "Drang
nach Osten" was halted by the Slavic tribes living
along the Warthe, 1 Oder 2 and Netze 3 Rivers, called
Poloni by the early Latin chronicles. They called
themselves Polanie or inhabitants of the plains
or fields, "pole" meaning field in the Slavic lan-
guages. They were a strong, sturdy race, predomi-
nantly agricultural. Their extensive and fertile lands,
reclaimed from primitive forests, stretching amidst
the great chain of lakes and riverlPfnade possible an
early intercourse between^hese peoples, who thereby
attained a higher economic and social structure. It
was in this region that the nucleus of the Polish
Nation was formed.
Owing to the frequent raids of the Norsemen
the people of this region early organized an effective
military force of defense. Under the
protection of the military bands and
Organization their chiefs the fields could safely be
cultivated, and the little fortified towns
(grody), which became places for the transaction of
intratribal business and barter, for common worship
and for the storage of goods during a foreign in-
vasion, could be successfully defended and the wrongs
of the people redressed. The military bands and their
leaders soon became the unifying force, and the forti-
*i,2,3, i n Polish these rivers are known as: Warta, Odra and Notec.
6 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
fied towns the centres of a larger political organiza-
tion, with the freeman (Kmiec or Kmeton) as its
base. The first historical town of this nature was that
of Kruszwica, on the Lake of Goplo. It soon gave
place to that of Gniezno (called Gnesen by the Ger-
mans) or Knezno, further west, which by its very
name indicates that it was the residence of a Knez,
or prince or duke. In time Poznan (Posen) became
FIG. 4 AN ANCIENT HISTORICAL, TOWER AT KRUSZWICA.
(MYSIA WIE2A.)
the princely town, and the principality began to as-
sert itself and to grow westward to the Oder, south-
ward to the Barycza and eastward to the Pilica
Rivers. In the east this territorial expansion met with
the armed opposition of another large tribe, the
Lenczanians, which was similarly organized under a
military ruler and which occupied the plains between
the Warta, Bzura and Pilica Rivers. Further east,
in the jungles of the middle course of the Vistula to
the north of Pilica, lived the most savage of the Pol-
ish tribes, the Mazurs. This tribe was the latest to
EARLY POLAND 7
come under the sovereignty of the principality which
began its political existence on the bank of the Goplo
Lake under the leadership of the wheelwright Piast,
whose dynasty ruled the country till 1370. To the
north of the Netze River, between the Oder and the
Baltic, lived the northernmost of the Polish tribes,
known as the Pomorzanie, or people living by the sea.
"Po" in Polish means "by" and "morze" the sea;
hence the name of the province Pomorze, later
changed by the Teutons to Pomerania.
Some historical writers attribute the change in
the political organization of the primitive Polanie
tribe to the influence of foreign commerce which for
geographic reasons had early centered around the
Goplo. At that period the lake was a very large body
of water with a level at least ten feet higher than
at present. The many small lakes now existing in
the region were in all probability a part of Goplo, and
the valleys of the vicinity constituted the bottom of
the lake. There are many reasons to believe that such
was the hydrography of the section in that remote
age. In his description of Goplo, written five hundred
years ago, Dlugosz, a Polish historian, speaks of a
vast body of water, leading us to believe that the lake
then was much larger than it is at the present time.
There is reason to believe that five hundred years
previous to this historian's time, before the primeval
forests were cut, the lake was still larger. The sup-
position that Goplo at the time of its highest level
was connected by means of small navigable streams
with the rivers Warta, Oder and the Vistula is quite
plausible. The constructive fancy of the economic
historian sees flotillas of the Pomeranian merchants
moving to and fro from Stettin down the Oder and
Netze. Here they met merchants from the east, the
southeast and the southwest of Europe. The Byzan-
8 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tian, Roman and Scandinavian cultures met at
Kruszwica, the largest town on the banks of this
vast internal sea of Poland, and exercised a revo-
lutionary effect upon the modes of thought and the
political institutions of the tribe. Otherwise the sud-
den transformation which took place from the tribal
and communal organization of the people, which still
existed in the second half of the eighth century, to
the militaristic structure of society with a strong
princely power, as is known to have existed in the
ninth century, becomes almost unaccountable. The
pressure from the west and north was, no doubt, an
important element, but it alone would hardly seem
sufficient to explain the change. Economic and cul-
tural reasons had unquestionably exercised a great
influence in the rapid moulding of a new form of
political life which was more adapted to conditions
that had arisen since the change from nomadic pur-
suits to settled agriculture.
Though somewhat differing in civilization, the
tribes which later formed the Polish nation were
kindred in their social, moral and reli-
The Social gious ideas. They were scattered in
Structure' ^^ danS O1 " S eilteS > boimd b y ties Ol
of Early blood. The lands belonging to a group
Slavic Life or family were held in common. The
work was done in common under the
direction of the "starosta," the elder or patriarch of
the gens. He was the chief executive, and had con-
trol over the crops and the allotments of work. It
must, however, be noted in this connection that since
the earliest times there existed private property in
movables, especially in tools. The Polish Slavs, un-
like the others and especially the Southern Slavs,
never had the so-called "zadrugas" or great com-
EARLY POLAND 9
munal households. From their early history they
exhibited a strong individualistic propensity.
Important matters were decided by a popular
assembly called "Wiec," to which belonged all the
male adults of the community. It is impossible to
determine accurately the relation between the power
of the Wiec and that of the starosta. It varied from
place to place and from time to time; sometimes the
popular assembly maintained supreme power; some-
times the starosta gained ascendency and endeavored
to make his office hereditary. In many instances he
was successful.
As elsewhere in a similar primitive social organ-
ization the individual did not exist outside of his
clan. The solidarity of the members of the clan was
the basis for protection and any injury sustained by
a member of the clan at the hands of an outsider was
an offense against the whole community. The prin-
ciple of blood vengeance prevailed. He who did not
belong to a clan had no protection and either perished
or was made a slave, becoming the property of the.
clan as a unit, and, in later stages, of certain individ-
uals within the community. The slaves were recruited
chiefly from among the prisoners of war, but some
were bought. In some instances murder was punish-
able by slavery. The children of slaves were retained
by the masters as slaves.
Concomitant with the growth of the "grody"
and the increased demands of the military princes,
came the agglomeration and greater economic ex-
ploitation of the slaves in the interests of the small
fortified towns and their garrisons. Settlements
given over entirely to slaves sprang up around the
"grody," and certain specified tasks were assigned to
the inhabitants. Some settlements ground grain,
some supplied bread or fish, others cared for horses
10 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and cattle, built boats or made shields, and the settle-
ments were named for the industry in which the in-
habitants engaged. This distribution of occupations
among the settlements lasted well into the twelfth
century, the occupations having become hereditary
from father to son. The names of many such "pur-
posely created " (narokowe) villages have survived
until the present day.
We do not possess adequate sources of informa-
tion as to the primitive religion of the Polish Slavs.
Like all primitive peoples they deified
the forces and phenomena of nature.
Early Slavs The surrounding world was filled with
supernatural beings: gods, goddesses
and spirits. It seems that none of the Slavic peoples
had any idea of a god as a supreme being ruling the
whole world. In some places certain deities were
worshipped more than others, but there was no
gradation or hierarchy of gods. One feature of the
Slavic religion that distinguishes it from that of the
Teutons was the calmness and serenity of the Slavic
gods, a difference which emphasizes the peaceful
character of the Slavs.
The most generally recognized deity was Swia-
towit (Indra), the Slavic Zeus. He was pictured with
four faces, hence seeing everything; with a cornu-
copia in his right hand a sword in his left hand. He
was worshipped particularly in Pomorze (Pomera-
nia) and on the Island of Rugia (Rugen). The other
well-known deities were Perun, the god of storms;
Welles, the god of cattle; Lada, the goddess of order
and beauty; Marzanna, the goddess of death; Dzie-
wanna, the goddess of spring; Radegast, the protec-
tor of merchants and guests. In addition, the woods
and waters were filled with nymphs, sirens and
fauns. The Slavs believed in the immortality of
EARLY POLAND
11
the soul and in an afterworld, with punishment and
reward. The dead were the objects of particular care,
and funerals were very elaborate and carried on with
great pomp. Certain days of the year were set aside
for offerings and prayers to the dead. Some people,
particularly women, had special powers of communi-
FIG. 5
TWO STATUES OF SWIATOVIT
FIG. 6
cation with the spirits of the dead, and their services
as intermediaries were often sought. Generally
speaking, however, this class of sorcerers and magi-
cians did not develop into a permanent priestly class.
The only exception to this rule were the Slavs on the
Elbe and in Rugia among whom a class of profes-
sional priests is known to have existed.
FIG. 7 VIEW OF GNIEZNO
CHAPTER II.
Beginnings of the Polish State
The recorded political history of the Polish Na-
tion begins with the conversion of the people to
Christianity, which took place in the
The year 963 A.D., when the Polish Prince
influence Mieszko I, 960-982, facing a German
of the Roman . , , ' . , & r ,. r
Catholic invasion, forsook the faith of his fathers
Church and by so doing halted the march of
ruthless extermination by the Germans,
ostensibly undertaken in the name of Christianity.
Exhausted by previous wars with his northern
neighbors and realizing that he could not withstand
the triumphant armies of Otto I of Saxony, founder
of the Holy Roman Empire, conqueror of France,
Denmark, Burgundy and Bohemia, Mieszko prompt-
ly recognized the sovereignty of the German Em-
peror and embraced the new faith. Closely follow-
ing the official introduction of Christianity and the
establishment of the first Bishopric in Poznan
(Posen) comes the overweening influence of the west-
ern world.
The monasteries established in Poland were
branches of Italian, French and German abbeys. The
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE
13
(J. Mateykoi
FIG. S MIESZKO I (960-982;
14 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
foreign methods of organization and of agriculture
brought over by them from the west exercised a very
powerful and beneficent influence upon the product-
iveness of the Polish farmer and upon his modes of
life. He was taught the use of more developed agri-
cultural implements and was shown how to drain
swamps, build better houses, plant orchards, and do
many other things which he had not known.
The establishment of a monastery was almost
invariably accompanied by an influx of foreign labor-
FIG. 9 THE CATHEDRAL OP POSEN
ers. They were brought over to produce certain
things which the natives could not, and which were
needed by the friars. The craftsmen, however, were
not the only foreign working element which arrived
in Poland at the time. The country was changing
from its former basis to more intense agriculture, and
this change necessitated a larger labor force, and
many German peasants settled in Poland. Moreover,
the grants of land given to the monasteries in the
various sections of the principality did not, as a rule,
include the right to the population settled on these
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE 15
donated domains. To do the necessary work on their
extensive estates the monasteries were oftentimes
compelled to resort to foreign labor which, when im-
ported by them, was chiefly non-free in character.
In this way the monasteries, which at the time of
their introduction into Poland were the only large
private landowners, supplied an example of organiza-
tion of large manors and the utilization of the half
free class of foreign peasants who became attached
to the soil (adscriptitii).
By adopting the Church of Rome, Poland, like
Bohemia, Moravia and Croatia, joined the common-
wealth of the nations of western Europe and became
spiritually as well as socially separated from the rest
of Slavdom. The double set of influences at work,
the Byzantian and the Roman, not only cleft the
Slavic peoples in twain, but created two entirely dis-
tinct civilizations which frequently clashed with each
other in a very severe manner.
Since the days of Mieszko I the Polish forms of
political and spiritual life have been consciously
moulded according to western models. In the in-
ternal administration of the Polish principality the
organization of the German burgwards was followed.
The patriarchal form of life was gradually dissolving
and the "grody" were combined into counties admin-
istered by governors called "castellans," from the
Latin word "castellum" or castle. These officials
were the personal representatives of the Prince, and
were recruited chiefly from the descendants of the
chiefs of the subjugated tribes or the earls of the
former democratic townships. They soon formed the
nucleus of a feudal aristocracy. The political life of
the people became more centralized, and, as in west-
ern Europe, more subjected to the power of the feudal
lords.
]6 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
With the growth of the power of the Prince the
burdens of the people grew heavier. Mieszko was
compelled to maintain a large and permanent stand-
ing army to preserve the unity of his principality.
The taxes of the people had to be increased for the
maintenance of this army. In addition to the support
of the army, of the Prince and his Court, and the re-
quirement of supplying them with food, forage and
lodging, greater personal services were requested for
the building and up-keep of the fortified towns and
roads. Furthermore, the introduction of tithes for
the maintenance of the churches and the clergy, most-
ly foreign and whom the people hated, added much
to the pressure put upon them.
In compensation for the added economic burdens
came a powerful swing of national development and
political consolidation. Boleslav the
Brave ' 982 - 1025 A - D ' the oldest son
of Mieszko, having disposed of his
brothers, with whom he was joint heir to the domains
of his father, became the single ruler of Poland and
determined to push her boundaries far and wide.
After having successfully checkmated the Bohemian
and Ruthenian invasions, Boleslav defeated the
Pomeranians and conquered the Baltic seacoast. In
the year 999 A.D. the old commercial town of Cracow
was annexed, and after beating back a Hungarian
invasion, Boleslav added Trans-Carpathian Slavonia
to Poland.
With the death of Emperor Otto III (1002 A.D.)
the imperial branch of the House of Saxony became
extinct, and during the interregnum a period of in-
ternal dissension ensued in Germany and Italy. At
the same time a civil war was in progress in Bohemia,
and, taking advantage of the situation, Boleslav en-
tered Prague, proclaimed himself Prince of Bohemia,
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE
17
FIG. 10 BOLESI.AV THE FRAVE (982-1025)
(J. Mateyko)
POLAND
in the year 992
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE 19
and fused the two principalities into one State (1003
A.D.). But this did not prove to be a lasting con-
quest, as very soon after Henry II of Bavaria became
the German Emperor, and a joint expedition of Ger-
mans and Bohemians was sent against Boleslav. A
bloody and devastating war began which lasted four-
teen years. Boleslav was compelled to abandon his
claims to Bohemia. He retained, however, most of
the conquered territory of the other Slavic peoples on
the west and east, the German marks between the
Oder and the Elbe, the City of Kieff and many towns
of Red Russia. At the end of his reign Poland ex-
tended from the Baltic on the north to the Danube
FIG. 11 THE SWORD OF BOLESLAV THE BRAVE
(In the Ermitage Museum at Petrograd)
on the south, and from the rivers Bug and Dniester
in the east to the Elbe in the west.
In addition to his qualities as a warrior, Boleslav
was a statesman and diplomat of conspicuous ability.
He realized that his achievements would not be last-
ing unless the ancient Slavic law of equal rights of
inheritance of all the male heirs was changed to that
of primogeniture. This could be achieved only by
making the Polish principality a kingdom. The Pope,
desirous of curbing the power of the German Em-
peror but fearing him, deferred giving his consent.
Another reason for his hesitancy to acquiesce in
Boleslav's request was his disinclination to concede
to the Polish monarch the power of nominating bish-
ops, which his investment with royal prerogatives
POLAND
at the time of the death of Boleslavthe Brave 982-1025
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE 21
would carry. Not awaiting the Pope's final decision,
the impetuous Boleslav convoked the Polish bishops
at Gniezno (Gnesen), the seat of the archbishopric,
and was crowned there by the archbishop amid great
splendor, and in the presence of his feudatories and
his great army of twenty thousand warriors. This
was a bold defiance to the German Emperor, whose
sovereignty he ceased to recognize (1024 A.D.).
FIG. 12 COIN OF BOLESLAV THE BRAVE
A coalition of the German Empire with Bohemia
and all the other conquered countries which came
under the rule of Boleslav, led to a war
The Relation which, by the year 1040, left Poland
th^Germa stripped of almost all her previous con-
Empire quests. The internal strife between the
two sons of Boleslav the Brave and the
revolt of the people against oppressive taxation and
brutal treatment, experienced at the hands of the
Church and the feudal lords, contributed to the Polish
defeat and plunged the country into a state of chaos
and dissolution which for a time threatened its very
existence. Cities, castles, churches and monasteries
22
were burned and demolished, and in many places the
people reverted to paganism after having murdered
the hated priests and monks.
FIG. 13 THE MONUMENT OF MIESZKO I AND BOLESLAV THE BRAVE
IN THE GOLDEN CHAPEL AT POSEN
As in many other instances, so in this crisis in
Polish history, outside circumstances averted the dis-
ruption of the Kingdom of Boleslav. The growing
power of Bohemia aroused the fears and disquietude
of the German Emperor, Henry III. A strong Poland
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE 23
was needed to curb the Bohemian ambitions. The
Germans lent their aid to Kazimir the Restorer (1040-
1058 A.D.), who, with the help of his loyal feudato-
ries, reconquered some of the lost provinces, restored
unity and peace, and began to devote himself to in-
ternal reorganization along German lines. He estab-
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 14 KAZIMIR THE RESTORER (1040-1058)
lished a bureaucracy and an ecclesiastical hierarchy,
rebuilt cities and churches, and imposed very heavy
taxes and duties on the people in an effort to reduce
them into complete subjugation to the warriors and
clergy. In compensation for the aid of Germany,
Kazimir recognized the sovereignty of the German
Emperor and renounced the title of King.
The political history of Poland from the intro-
duction of Christianity to the end of the Xllth cen-
24 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tury turns around the relation of the Polish sover-
eigns to the German emperors. The suzerainty of
the German Emperor was recognized by the rulers
of Poland only when the Germans were in a position
to force them into this relation. As soon as either
internal dissensions or foreign wars enfeebled the
power of the German Empire, the Polish state imme-
diately tried to secure emancipation.
(J. Mateyko)
FIG 15 BOLESLAV THE BOLD (1058-1079)
It fell to the lot of Boleslav the Bold, or Gener-
ous, the successor of Kazimir (1058-1079 A.D.), a
man of power and strong will, to restore
the lor y of the Kin g dom of Boleslav
Holy See tne Brave by an alliance with the Pope.
In the beginning of the existence of
the Polish state, Mieszko I, in an endeavor to loosen
the ties binding him to the German Empire, had
sought to establish an entente with the Pope, John
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE 25
XV, and confided Poland to the protection of the
Apostolic See. In token of this relation an annual
gift, known as St. Peter's pence, was sent to the Pope
by the King. In establishing direct relations with
the Pope, Poland endeavored to eliminate the inter-
vention of the Emperor in her foreign relations. At
times under the pressure of the Emperor, the rela-
tions with Rome became less intimate, but no oppor-
tunity was missed to re-establish them. As a matter
of fact, the annual St. Peter's pence was regularly
sent to Rome until the end of the Xllth century.
During the reign of Boleslav II the Bold, oc-
curred that famous struggle for supremacy between
Pope Gregory VII, Hildebrand and the Emperor
Henry IV. In recognition of the assistance shown
him in this conflict, the Pope crowned Boleslav as
independent King in 1076 A.D. Seeking revenge, the
Emperor recognized the Bohemian ruler as King and
offered him the Polish provinces of Cracow and
Silesia. A war followed which led to internal dis-
sensions in Poland. In carrying out rigorously the
reforms of Hildebrand, the King made many enemies
among the clergy. His despotic character was also
resented by the nobility. Under the leadership of the
king's brother, Wladyslav Herman, a revolution
broke out. The Bishop of Craco'w interdicted the
king and joined the Bohemians. For this he paid
the penalty of death. The story goes that the in-
furiated king personally murdered the Bishop in the
church at mass. Recent studies, however, show that
the bishop was tried for treason by the King's Court,
was found guilty and was executed.
The civil war resulted in the king's defeat and
he fled the country. Cracow and southern Poland
went to Bohemia, and Poland once more became a
feudatory of the German Empire, and the new ruler,
26 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Wladyslav Herman (1070-1102 A.D.), lost his title
of king.
By a skillful playing off of Poland and Bohemia
against each other, and by the active encouragement
of internal hereditary strifes, the German Emperors
kept both of these western Slavic nations from devel-
oping into powerful states.
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 16 Wt.ADYSt.AV HERMAN (1070-1102)
A principal cause for the constantly recurring
civil wars was the Slavic laws of inheritance, which
Boleslav the Brave failed to abolish, and
which Kazimir tried to modify by estab-
iiiheritance lishing the so-called seniorate. This
was a system of inheritance whereby
all sons were equal sharers in their father's estate, but
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE 27
the oldest son, the senior, became the supreme lord
over all of them. It was a compromise measure de-
signed to retain the old customs and laws of Poland,
and to preserve at the same time the political unity,
which was gravely threatened after the death of each
ruler.
FIG 17 THE SEAL OF WLADYSLAV HERMAN
(The Oldest Known Seal of a Polish Prince)
The years following the death of Wladyslav
Herman witnessed one of these terrific internal
strifes which, in this instance, was aggravated by a
German invasion, finally repelled by Boleslav the
Wrymouthed (1102-1138 A.D.), who succeeded also
in conquering Pomerania and extending the Polish
possessions on the Baltic Seaboard, far across the
Oder up to and including the Island of Rugia
(Rugen). He died, however, a feudatory of the Ger-
man Emperor.
POLAND
at the time of the death of Boleslav theWrymouthed 1138
BEGINNINGS OF THE POLISH STATE 29
Mindful of the dangers of another civil strife
after his death, he obtained the sanction of the Em-
peror and of the Pope to the Kazimirian principle of
seniorate. The aristocracy of the land, which had
grown during the years in wealth and class con-
sciousness, was opposed to a strong centralized gov-
ernment. They preferred a number of smaller prin-
cipalities, which precluded the centralization of
power in one ruler, and gave more offices and free-
dom to themselves. It was due to their antagonism
that the imperial and Papal sanction of the seniorate
failed to bring the desired results.
FIG. 18 WAWEL, THE ROYAL CASTLE AT CRACOW
CHAPTER III.
The Decline of Monarchical Power.
Following his theory of seniorate, Boleslav the
Wrymouthed divided the country into five principali-
ties Silesia, Great Poland,* Mazovia,
The Preroga- Sandomir and Cracow. The first four
Grand' Duke provinces were divided among his four
of Cracow sons who became independent rulers.
The fifth province, that of Cracow, was
to be added to the senior among the Princes who, as
the Grand Duke of Cracow, was the representative of
the whole of Poland. No sooner did Boleslav die
than his oldest son, Wladyslav, conceived the idea of
restoring Poland's unity by depriving his brothers of
their shares. He met with the determined opposition
of the Church and the magnates, who clearly recog-
nized that a centralized power was detrimental to
their interests and influence. The Archbishop of
Gnesen hurled an anathema at Wladyslav and two
* The name was not meant to indicate that the principality was
larger than the others, but that it was "older," "original" Poland. The
Latin name Major Polonia was mistakenly translated as "Great Po-
land." The principalities of Cracow and Sandomir, having come later
into the fold of the Polish state, were named "younger Poland," but
in the course of time, in contrast to the misnomer "Great Poland,"
became popularly known as "Little Poland."
THE DECLINE OF MONARCHICAL POWER 31
powerful potentates organized an army against him.
A civil war ensued, which, despite the help received
from outside and the interference of Friedrich Bar-
barossa, ended in the defeat of the Grand Duke of
Cracow. This marks the beginning of the era of dis-
integration of the young Polish state and the decline
of monarchical power in Poland. The principalities
of Silesia, Great Poland and Mazovia had become
divided into smaller units, with further sub-divisions
and occasional fusions. Separatist interests and jeal-,
ousies led to almost incessant warfare.
The ruler of Cracow retained the title of Dux
Polonise, the Duke of Poland, but the security of his
office depended upon his relations with the aristoc-
racy and clergy. Kazimir the Just (1177-1194) had
been obliged to summon a council of nobles and
clergy and to surrender certain of his rights and
privileges. He was also compelled to promise to call
such councils when important matters of state were
to be decided upon. At the Council or Synod of Len-
czyca, held in 1180, the Church, under the threat of
an interdict, enjoined the Duke from the exercise of
his right to the personal property of deceased bishops
(lus Spolii) and to certain levies for his officials and
representatives. In return for these concessions or
immunities the Council abolished the seniorate and
vested in the line of Kazimir the Just the perpetual
right to the principality of Cracow. Thus the right
of seniority in the House of Piast the Wheelwright
gave way to the law of primogeniture in the line of
Kazimir the Just. This right was frequently con-
tested by armed interference. The authority of the
Duke of Cracow was not adequately defined by law
and was nil in actual practice. The heads of the
smaller principalities were, in fact, independent
rulers. They were free to establish alliances for de-
32
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. l!i J:OI,l<;si,A V THE WRYMOL'THED (.
POLAND
as subdivided amongthesonsofBoleslavtheWrymouthed
34
THE-POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
fensive and offensive warfare, to make treaties and
to maintain independent customs barriers. In other
words, Poland of the XIII century was no longer one
solid political entity. The sovereignty of the former
state became diffused among a number of smaller
independent political units, with only the common
bonds of language, race, religion and tradition.
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 20 KAZIMIR THE JUST (1177-1194)
The princely power was theoretically unlimited.
By the "grace of God" the princes were absolute lords
of their dominions. Actually, the exer-
cise of their power depended on the
strength or weakness of the barons and
clergy, and on their own skill in playing
off the interests of the one against those
of the other. The barons and the clergy
became very powerful in the XHIth century. Both
The Restric-
tion of the
Sovereign
Power of the
Princes
THE DECLINE OF MONARCHICAL POWER 35
classes acquired large land holdings with jurisdiction
over their subjects. The Church grew constantly
stronger on account of its splendid organization, its
accumulation of wealth and the moral control it exer-
cised over the people. Then, too, it had become more
independent since the adoption of the Gregorian re-
forms, which deprived the king of the power to ap-
point bishops. By their presence at the Councils of
the Prince, called "Colloquia," they, in conjunction
with the barons, exercised direct control over the
affairs of the principality. The Colloquium was called
at such times as state business demanded. In addi-
tion to the relatives of the prince, the barons and pre-
lates were invited to attend it, and at these gather-
ings matters of foreign policies, as well as of internal
administration, were determined. The granting of
franchises, the fixing of taxes and matters of like
nature were decided at these meetings, and at times
the Colloquium also served as the Prince's Court.
The Colloquium was the nucleus of what later devel-
oped into the Senate.
Synchronous with the metamorphosis in the
structure of the Polish State and sovereignty was
an economic and social impoverishment
German Q ^ countrv Harassed by civil strifes
Settlements , , ? ... J . .
in Poland an( ^ foreign invasions, like that ot the
Tartars in 1241 A.D., the small prin-
cipalities became enfeebled and depopulated. The
incomes of the Princes began to decrease materially.
This led them to take steps toward encouraging im-
migration from foreign countries. A great number
of German peasants, who, during the interregnum
following the death of Friedrich II Hohenstaufen,
suffered great oppression at the hands of their lords,
were induced to settle in Poland under certain very
36 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
favorable conditions. German immigration into Po-
land had started spontaneously at an earlier period,
about the end of the XI century, and was the result
of overpopulation in the central provinces of the Em-
pire. Advantage of the existing tendency had al-
ready been taken by the Polish Princes in the Xllth
century for the development of cities and crafts. Now
the movement became intensified.
Studies of the development of the German settle-
ments in Poland indicate that they sprang up along
the wide belt which was laid waste by the Tartars in
1241. It was a stretch of land comprising present
Galicia and Southern Silesia. Prior to the Tartar
invasion these two provinces were thickly settled and
highly developed. Through them ran the commercial
highways from the East and the Levant to the Baltic
and the west of Europe. Cracow and Breslau were
large and prosperous towns. After the Tartar bar-
barians retired the country was in ruins and the popu-
lation either scattered or exterminated. Large num-
bers were taken prisoners. The refugees went north
and helped to colonize the sparsely inhabited areas
and to clear the forests to the east of the Vistula in
Mazovia. On the heels of the receding Tartars came
the Germans. Theirs was a movement along the line
of least resistance. The new settlers were spared the
hard labor of the pioneers as the soil they occupied
had been used for arable purposes centuries before.
There was no need of clearing primeval forest or
colonizing an utter wilderness.
It would be a mistake to think that all the new-
comers were Teutons. Slavic tribes, at that time,
separated Poland from Germany, and the Germans
who came to Poland went through this Slavic screen
and brought with them numerous autochthons of the
THE DECLINE OF MONARCHICAL POWER 37
border Slavic lands. Upon arriving in Poland the
settlers from the west restored agriculture, rebuilt
the cities and came into the possession of all the ad-
vantages the fertile soil and the favorable geographic
position gave them.
The entrepreneur (known by the Latin name of
villicator), who brought over a number of settlers,
received, in addition to the compensation for his
services, a piece of land for the colony of which he be-
came the chief (woyt), with hereditary right to cer-
tain taxes. These rights he could concede or sell. He
was also the judge of the colony. He was free from all
duties except those of a knight and a tax collector,
and responsible to nobody except to the Prince. The
settlers, after dividing among themselves the land
granted to them by the Prince, proceeded to build the
city with its town hall, market-place and church in
the centre. The streets ran radius-like from the
centre. The town was surrounded by a mound and
ditch, beyond which lay the arable fields, pastures
and woods. The settlers were given every privilege
of building the towns in the way to which they were
accustomed, and to govern themselves according to
the practice of their native country. For a number
of years, varying in each case, the settlers were free
from all taxes or duties. After the expiration of the
term of years they had to pay a stipulated annual tax
into the Prince's treasury. The tax was to be paid in
money, not like that of the Polish grody, in kind and
services. In addition they were, in some instances,
required to maintain defensive walls, towers and
gates, and to supply impedimenta for war and armed
servants. In their internal affairs they were given
full home rule and were free from all interference by
representatives of the Prince. They governed them-
38 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
selves according to German law, the chief (woyt) and
a chosen jury constituting the court. Appeals from
the decisions of this court could be taken to the Court
of the Prince or to the higher courts in the German
cities. The administration was in the hands of a
City Council, consisting of the burgomaster and ad-
visors, either elected by the people or appointed by
the Prince, this depending on the terms of the char-
ter. The artisans established guilds which regulated
the quality and price of products. The Prince had the
sole authority to grant town charters. Sometimes he
gave this power to the feudal and ecclesiastical lords
of the principality.
In this way beside the Polish "grody" sprang
into existence a large number of towns, with Ger-
man laws, customs and institutions. The ancient
towns of Cracow, Lwow, Poznari, Plock and others
received a large admixture of German population,
and became regarded by the metropolitan towns in
Germany as their branches and as outposts of Ger-
man trade and civilization in Poland. The common
law of the country was supplanted by the Magdeburg
and Halle law, German silver coins became the
money of the country, and all municipal records be-
gan to be kept in the German language. Had it not
been for the Tartar invasion, Polish towns would
have developed normally and created a city popula-
tion truly Polish, which would have been organically
allied to the whole social and national fabric. As it
was the cities became oases for a foreign element,
hostile, or at least indifferent, to the country, and
this condition became responsible in a measure for
the excessive prerogatives gained in the future by
one class of the Polish nation, the nobility, who alone
bore the brunt of national defence.
THE DECLINE OF MONARCHICAL POWER 39
Similar to the growth of German towns was the
development by colonization of villages based on
German law. To induce settlers in the unoccupied
areas the Prince granted tracts of land exempt from
taxes for a number of years. All the settlers on these
lands were absolutely free. The only obligation was
the payment of an annual rent to the Prince, collected
for him by the organizer of the settlement, who, in
compensation for his work, received in hereditary
right a large grant of land, a flour mill or tavern. In
addition to the duties of a tax collector the organizer,
called soltys, was to render military service and act
as the police officer of the village. He was also the
presiding officer of the jury chosen by the villagers.
In all administrative matters the village, like the city,
had complete home rule. Except for the town hall
and the town council the villages did not differ much
from the towns. With the consent of the Prince,
barons and prelates could either establish new free
settlements or change the legal basis of the already
existing native villages in their domains from the
Polish to the German law.
On account of the advantages that the German
method of settling gave to land owners, it became
very popular with them and exercised a great in-
fluence upon the administrative, economic and par-
ticularly, political life of the country. The influx of
great masses of the German element, that had all
the support of their native country as well as of the
military Teutonic Orders, which settled on the Baltic
seacoast in the beginning of the Xlllth century and
from its earliest days engaged in a ruthless war of
extermination on the autochthonous population under
the guise of spreading Christ's gospel, destroyed
political cohesion.
40 tHE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
An additional foreign element began to settle in
Poland in great numbers at the same time. The Jews,
persecuted all over Europe during the
Jewish Crusades, fled to Poland where they
Immigration '. , . . , .
to Poland were received in a most hospitable man-
ner. They settled in the towns and be-
gan to carry on commerce and banking. As illus-
trative of the friendliness of the Poles toward these
newcomers may be cited the statue of Kalisz, pro-
mulgated by Prince Boleslav in the year 1246
by which the Jews received every protection of the
law and which imposed heavy penalties for any in-
sults to their cemeteries, synagogues and other sanc-
tuaries. About the same time Prince Henry IV of
Wroclaw (Breslau) imposed heavy penalties upon
those who accused Jews of ritual murder. Anyone
who made such an accusation had to prove it by six
witnesses, three Gentiles and three Jews, and in case
of his inability to prove the charge in a satisfactory
manner he was himself found guilty and subject to
severe pnuishment.
While the Jews adapted themselves to their new
environment and coalesced, to a degree, with the
native population, the German element, backed by
their government, became aggressive and sought to
dominate the country. The rich German town people
were supported in their endeavors by the clergy, who
arrived from Germany in great numbers and oc-
cupied prominent church positions. It was with the
aid of the Germans that the dauntless but German-
ized Leszek the Dark (1278-1288), and after him
Henry Probus (1289-1290), who joined the ancient
Polish Duchy of Silesia to the German Empire,
ascended the throne of Cracow. The German
influence grew disquietingly. A strong antagonistic
movement arose and the clash of the two forces con-
THE DECLINE OF MONARCHICAL POWER
41
stitutes the pith of Polish history during the next
century. The conflict resulted in complete Poloniza-
tion of the German element and among the descend-
ants of these settlers there have been many of the
most ardent Polish patriots. This is eloquent testi-
mony of the great assimilative powers of the people
and of the state building capabilities of the Poles.
FIG. 21 THE MARKET PLACE OF CRACOW
The Aquisi-
tion of
Pomerania
CHAPTER IV.
The Consolidation of Poland
That part of the Baltic seaboard which lies be-
tween the Vistula in the east and the Oder in the
west, and bounded by the Notec on the
south, was inhabited by the Pomera-
nians, a cognate Slavic people, who,
separated from Poland by virgin forests,
long resisted the numerous armed attempts to bring
them into the fold of the Polish state. No regular
wars could be carried on with them but guerilla war-
fare, resembling that of Charlemagne with the Sax-
ons, lasted for over a century. Finally in 1109, by a
brilliant victory near the town of Naklo on the Notec
River, Boleslav the Wrymouthed succeeded in forc-
ing the Pomeranian princes to recognize the sover-
eignty of Poland.
The administration of the newly acquired terri-
tory was left to the native princes. The people of the
southern part of Pomerania accepted Christianity
and became incorporated into the diocese of Great
Poland.
The advantages secured by the accession of the
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND 43
seacoast could not be immediately exploited by the
Poles, for it was necessary to defend vital national
interests against a new German invasion, sent by the
Emperor Henry V in the year 1109. After a defeat
at Wroclaw (Breslau) the Germans were forced to
retreat, having devastated a large area of Poland
and exterminated many prosperous towns. In this
war the city of Glogow (Glogau) became famous
for its desperate defense, in the course of which the
children of the town, captured by the Germans and
carried in front of their siege machines, were killed
by their fathers.
After the war with the German Empire Pome-
rania again claimed the attention of the Polish
sovereign. Aided by the Prussians, a neighboring
people on their east, the Pomeranians, under the
leadership of Swietopelk of Naklo, rebelled. The re-
bellion was crushed and Pomerania, together with
the cities of Naklo, Santok, Czarnkow, Uscie and
others, was incorporated into the Duchy of Great
Poland. Suspecting other princes to the east of
Pomerania to be in sympathy with Swietopelk, the
victorious Boleslav the Wrymouthed crossed the
Oder, conquered the Lutics, another Slavic tribe on
the Baltic, took their chief city of Stettin and went
further west, vanquishing the Slavic peoples of Meck-
lenburg and Brandenburg and along the Baltic sea-
coast up to and including the Holy Island of Rugia
(Rugen) in 1121. Since that time the name of Pome-
rania has been applied to the whole stretch of the
Baltic seacoast extending from the mouth of the
Vistula to the Isle of Rugia.
Boleslav endeavored to introduce Christianity
into the conquered territories but all attempts proved
futile until the arrival of the mission of St. Otto, the
chaplain of Boleslav's father, who, instead of appear-
44
ing as a poor ascetic, came, aided by the power of the
Polish sovereign, in full dazzling splendor of a prince
of the Church and won the hearts of the people by
his gifts and kindness. By 1130, when the first bishop-
ric in Pomerania was established at Wolin, and the
people of the country, who had so persistently fought
Christianity, were all converted by the apostolic en-
deavors of the Polish ruler and his saintly bishop.
Further extensions of Polish influence to the
west, or even a firm grounding of the Poles in the
newly conquered territories, were rendered impos-
sible, first by an unfortunate war with Hungary, 1132-
1135, and then, after the death of Boleslav the Wry-
mouthed in 1138, by the above described division of
Poland into five independent principalities with the
ensuing civil strifes and the disappearance of a con-
structive political polity.
About the year 1147 the Margrave Albrecht the
Bear, Henry the Lion of Saxony, and the Danish
King Waldemar the Great organized a joint expedi-
tion against the Northwestern Slavs. The expedition
crowned the centuries long efforts to subdue the
Slavs. On the Slavic lands, between the Elbe and the
Oder, Albrecht founded a new German Duchy called
Brandenburg from the old Slavic town of Branibor,
and settled it with Teuton colonizers, mostly from
the Netherlands. The Saxon Prince and the Danish
King divided the Slav territories on the lower Elbe
and the Island of Rugia. The Lutic Prince of Stettin
became at first a feudatory of the Saxon Prince and
later of the German Emperor. The autochtonous
Slavic population of these regions was either exter-
minated or pushed into Poland, which lost all of the
seacoast west of the Vistula. Following this, a con-
siderable number of German colonizers occupied the
lands watered by the lower course of the Vistula.
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND 45
To offset the losses in the west the Polish princes
turned their attention to the Prussians who occupied
the Baltic seaboard from the right shore
The Polish o f th e Vistula to the Niemen, and ex-
Crusa s tended south, through bogs and forests,
*
Pussians as ^ ar as tne Narev. Further south of
them, on the Narev and the right shore
of the Bug, west of the Mazurs, lived the Jadz-
wings, a tribe closely related to the Prussians.
Both the Prussians and the Jadzwings came under
partial Polish suzerainty by the end of the XHIth
century during the reign of Kazimir the Just, 1177-
1194, but this did not prevent their constant ferocious.
raids on Mazovia, which proved most exasperating
to the Mazurian princes. All Christian missions
among the Prussians were unavailing. They clung
tenaciously to paganism. In order to make it pos-
sible to wage constant and unrelenting war against
these heathens, Pope Honorius III relieved the Poles
from expeditions to Palestine and proclaimed
throughout Germany a crusade against the Prus-
sians. Two such crusades were undertaken, one in
1219 and another in 1222, but both without percep-
tible success.
After a defeat suffered at the hands of the fierce
Prussians, Conrad, Prince of Mazovia, decided to
The Political turn for help to the Knights of the
Aggressive- Cross, the German order, which after
ness of the returning from Palestine settled on the
Knights of the Baltic in the early part of the Xlllth
century soon after the Knights of the
Sword established themselves at the estuary of the
Dvina for the purpose of converting the Lithuanians.
For their help in the campaign against the Prus-
sians, Conrad granted to them the districts of
Chelmno and Nieszawa in Mazovia. It was custom-
46 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
ary for princes in those days to bestow such large ter-
ritorial gifts on ecclesiastical corporations, but the
grants did not involve the loss of princely sovereignty
over them. Not so did the Knights of the Cross re-
gard this cession. Their ambition from the first was
to found -an independent state on Polish territory,
and in pursuance of this design they obtained, prior
to the receipt of the grants of Conrad, a charter from
Emperor Friedrich II to organize all the lands they
might acquire or conquer into a feudal state of the
German Empire. They also obtained from Pope
Gregory IX the privilege of complete freedom from
any church intervention in their territories.
With such plans in mind they arrived in Mazovia
in 1228. They were received with open arms by the
rulers and the people, and were supported most loyal-
ly throughout their campaign against the Prussians,
which lasted over half a century, until the whole of
Prussia as far as the Niemen was conquered. Having
finished with the Prussians they turned against the
heathen Lithuanians who lived to the east of Prus-
sia, along the middle Niemen and its tributaries.
They soon began to exhibit their real designs with
reference to the Poles, who were not heathens, and
who, through the Mazurian prince, had induced them
to undertake the crusade against the Prussians and
who had bestowed upon them help and friendship.
The pressure of Brandenburg in the northwest
and of the Order of the Cross in the northeast led to
a realization, on the part of the Poles,
T , h * *? V se f of the imminent danger from the Teu-
of Political , .
Consolidation tons an( ^ tne nee d of concerted action
against them. Moreover, the constant
civil wars between the Polish princes were ruining
the people and thwarting the economic, social and
political progress of the country. The need of a
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND
47
fusion of the small political units into a powerful
kingdom became apparent, particularly among the
clergy, who were the most enlightened and educated
people of the time and 'who by their church organiza-
tion formed the one truly Polish institution.
This budding tendency toward the unification
of the state was strongly supported by the cities, as,
FIG. 22 PRZEMYSLAV I (1295-1296)
in addition to the wars, the various tariff restrictions
and the multifarious other taxes hampered the devel-
opment of commerce and industry.
The period preceding the unification of the coun-
try abounded in warfare and bloodshed. Prince
Przemyslav, of Great Poland, with the consent of the
48
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Pope, crowned himself King of Poland in Gniezno
(Gnesen) in 1295, but a few months later was mur-
dered by the agents of Brandenburg. After his death
the struggle between the various princes who strove
for the high dignity again became acute. As a com-
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 23 WACI-.AV I (1300-1305)
promise Waclav, King of Bohemia, was crowned
King; of Poland in 1300. All Poland, except Mazovia,
came under his sceptre. The unification, however,
entailed the loss of national independence and sub-
jected Poland to a rigid administrative rule of Bohe-
mia and to a strong German influence, which at that
time had already become predominant in Bohemia.
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND
49
One of the princes of Great Poland, Wladyslav
Lokietek, 1306-1333, an able and enterprising man,
who, by the unification lost his title to
sovereignty, fled abroad, enlisted the
help of the powerful Pope Boniface
VIII, and, chosing an appropriate
moment when Bohemia became in-
volved in a war with Hungary, ap-
peared in Poland. He met with a cor-
dial reception in all the parts of the
country. Cracow and the whole of
Little Poland, Kujawy at the lower course of the
The Difficul-
ties with the
Knights of
the Cross and
the Disloyalty
of the German
Settlers
FIG. 24 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE MALBORG CASTLE
Vistula, and Pomerania, joined him. Great Poland
alone chose another prince of their own, and Mazovia
did not participate in the struggle.
At this juncture the Markgrave of Brandenburg
invaded Pomerania and conquered it. Lokietek, at
war with Great Poland, asked the Order of the Cross
to help him against the Markgrave. This they did,
but after defeating the Brandenburgians turned
against the Pomeranians. Following a most cruel
50
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
slaughter of the population, the province was annexed
by the Knights, who established there at the city of
Malborg, on the Vistula, their permanent capital.
They immediately proceeded to Germanize this
newly conquered province. By joining hands with
the other German order they formed an extensive
and powerful Teutonic Empire. In this way Poland
became isolated from the sea by a formidable foe who
FIG. 25 THE CASTLE OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE CROSS AT MALBORG
commanded at the time the admiration of all Europe.
Lokietek hesitated to risk a war with the Order. The
case was submitted to the Pope who issued a decree
commanding the Knights to restore Pomerania and
repay to Lokietek all war expenditures. This they
refused to do.
While the difficulties with the Knights were
growing, the German element in the city of Cracow
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND
51
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 26 WLADYSLAV LOKIETEK (1306-1333)
52 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
succeeded in organizing a rebellion against Lokietek
in favor of a Germanized prince. The rebellion, led
by the mayor and the bishop, was crushed and the
Germans dealt with very severely. The city was de-
prived of its home rule and was for a time governed
by appointive officers of the prince. The severe
punishment of Cracow had a discouraging effect upon
the German troublemakers in other Polish cities.
They soon abandoned their nationalistic political as-
pirations and returned to peaceful vocations.
Similarly successful were Lokietek's expeditions
against his enemies in Great Poland. Before long
all the Polish principalities united into
Lokietek's one political state. The inherently con-
Proclamation structive force of the Polish genius as-
Poh P tk 1 ai nd ' S serted itself despite the powerful in-
Sovereignty fluences that were arrayed against it.
and the Lokietek was but an incarnation of the
Ensuing Wars national spirit that had produced Boles-
lav the Brave and Boleslav the Wry-
mouthed and that revealed itself most powerfully in
the days of Jagiello and on many subsequent occa-
sions in the course of Polish history. The union
brought about by the leadership of Lokietek was,
however, personal at first. The severeign was the
only bond that kept the various provinces together.
In their internal organization the component parts of
the unified state were completely autonomous and
governed in exactly the same way as they had been
before the consolidation took place. To give to the
political unity an adequate outward expression
Lokietek strove for royal dignity. With the consent
of the Pope he was crowned in 1320 in Cracow as an
independent King of Poland.
This act led to a prolonged and costly war with
the German Emperor, who was antagonistic to the
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND 53
Pope, and, having renewed the struggle of the Em-
perors against Rome, still regarded Poland as his
vassal. Emperor Ludwig joined forces wih John of
Luxemburg, King of Bohemia, who, as a son-in-law
of Waclav, claimed the right to the throne of Poland,
and with the Markgrave of Brandenburg declared
war on Poland.
Foreseeing the war, Lokietek forged a chain of
friendships: first with the Scandinavian countries,
then with Hungary, by giving away in marriage his
daughter Elizabeth to the Hungarian King, Karl
Robert. He also approached the heathen Lithuani-
ans, which was a bold step for a Christian prince to
take, and in 1325 his only son, Kazimir, married
Anna Aldona, the daughter of the Lithuanian Grand
Duke Gedymin.
The struggle began in 1327 and was not termi-
nated at the time of Lokietek's death in 1333. The
war proved disastrous. By the treaty of Trenczyn
in Hungary, the new Polish King Kazimir, 1333-
1370, acknowledged the right of Bohemia to suze-
rainty over Silesia and Mazovia. The pearl of the
Polish crown, the westernmost province of Silesia,
was thus forever torn from Poland. Kazimir, how-
ever, succeeded in retaining Polish spiritual influence
over the province by insisting that it be not severed
from the Archbishopric at Gneseii, and Mazovia soon
reverted, in 1355, into the fold of the Polish state as
a feudatory of the Crown.
Final peace with the Knights of the Cross was
established in 1343 after a drawn-out suit brought
against them by the order of the Pope Benedict XII
for the recovery of Pomerania and other occupied
territories. Demands had also been made for com-
pensation for their inhuman treatment of the native
population and their wanton destruction of life and
54
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 27 KAZIMIR THE GREAT (1333-1370)
(J. Mateyko)
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND 55
property. The court rendered a verdict in favor of
Poland. Conscious of their superior military power
they refused to obey the verdict and Poland had to
submit to the loss of Pomerania. Kujawy, however,
and the other occupied territories were returned to
Poland.
Kazimir could not undertake another war for the
restoration of Pomerania, as the country was ex-
hausted and as his attention was direct-
The Acquisi- e( j ^0 Ruthenia where, on account of
Ruthenian t ^ ie extmc tion of the reigning dynasty
Territories ne na< ^ to press his claims as against
those of other pretenders. After a pro-
longed war with the Tartars and Lithuanians, the
western part of Volhynia was annexed to Poland
and the Prince of Podolia recognized the overlord-
ship of the Polish sovereign. Kazimir endeavored
to reach the seacoast of the Black Sea but his ex-
pedition was unsuccessful.
The acquisition of new lands in the east with a
population element different in religion and lower in
civilization, together with the chaos that existed in
the internal affairs of the country ruined by internal
dissensions and by long and bloody foreign wars, led
Kazimir to devote his thoughts and energy to the
material upbuilding of the land, and to the restora-
tion of law and order in his vast domains.
The law of the country was a compound of the
native common law and of the German law. It was
differently interpreted in the different
localities. The chaos gave rise to in-
Reforms .... << 1
justice in the application of the law and
its enforcement, and pointed very clearly to the acute
need of uniformity and of establishing a firm, well
defined judicial and administrative system. In 1347
POLAND
in the year 1341 Reign of Kazimir the Great
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND
57
a special council was called to Wislica to improve
the laws. The results of their labors of many years,
known as the Statutes of Wislica, where a body of
uniform laws with special regard for the local condi-
tions of the several sections of the country. It may
be noted in this connection that Poland in the time
of Kazimir had a large number of eminent writers
PIG. 28 THE STATE SEAT, OF
and jurists. Janko of Charnkov wrote a valuable
contemporary history in the form of chronicles, simi-
lar to that of Gallus, who wrote in the Xllth century
during the time of Boleslav the Wrymouthed.
By the time the Wislica statutes were drafted,
slavery had ceased to exist in all parts of Poland, but
the relations of peasants to landowners were not
uniform throughout the country. They differed from
58
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
place to place. Almost universally the taxes in kind
had ceased to exist. It may be of interest to note that
in Kazimir's time the exigencies of commerce de-
manded a regulation of the monetary problem and
.that the Wislica statutes provided that "there shall
be throughout the country uniform money of a con-
stant value and weight." One of the reasons for this
FIG. 29 THE CROWN, SCEPTRE AND MOUND OP KAZIMIR THE GREAT,
FOUND IN HIS GRAVE IN 1869
requirement, as given in the statute, was "that the
state might not look like a many-headed monster."
Both taxes and tithes were paid in money. The
peasant was free to make contracts with the land-
owner for the use of leased land, but he was often-
times helpless in preventing the landlord from exact-
ing more than the contract stipulations provided,
especially when the settlements were based on Ger-
man law and the landlord was the "soltys," or the
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND 59
chief and judge of the village. In many instances the
peasants were leaving the settlements and taking
with them all the stock received from the landlord.
Such migrations were frequent at that time. The
tracts of land laid waste by the Knights of the Cross
in the lake region of Prussia and the country for-
merly occupied by the Jadzwings, whom the Cheva-
liers completely exterminated, offered opportunities
for advantageous settlement. Polish colonization of
these regions was going on very rapidly. A similar
colonizing movement was taking place in the ac-
quired provinces of Ruthenia. The Polish peasant
was settling there on the German law basis and was
bringing with him western civilization to these re-
mote eastern regions. Likewise many of the towns-
people and of the nobility settled in Ruthenia and
became in time the natural bond between the natives
of these provinces, whose faith bound them to Con-
stantinople, and the rest of the empire whose tastes
and connections were those of the west.
Although Kazimir realized that unity in religion
would be most desirable for the solidarity of the na-
tion, and with that in view founded Roman Catholic
bishoprics in Przemysl, Wlodzimierz (Vladimir Vol-
hynski) and Chelm, and established two religious
orders in Ruthenia, yet he gave complete freedom
and encouragement to the prevailing Greek religion.
The Ruthenian bishopric at Halicz was raised to the
dignity of a metropolis to make it independent of the
See of that Church, recently moved from Kieff to
Moscow. His religious tolerance was well exhibited
in his relations with the Jews, who, persecuted prac-
tically all over Europe, settled in large numbers in
the Polish cities. The protection afforded to them
in the XTIIth century in Kalisz and Great Poland was
extended by Kazimir throughout his kingdom.
60 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The German settlers in the villages, forming
small foreign islets in a great native sea, had in the
course of time become completely amalgamated with
the native population. In the cities, however, where
they clustered in large groups, they preserved their
distinct identity and had strong German attachments.
Shielded by their independent municipal organiza-
tions they remained entirely foreign to the country of
their adoption. They formed an anomaly in the body
politic, which proved dangerous in times of war.
FIG. 30 THE SEAL. OF KAZIMIR THE GREAT
Kazimir like his father Lokietek who had to face an
open rebellion on the part of the German city element,
well realized the gravity of the situation and strove
to modify the relations of the cities to the crown. In
1356 Kazimir established in Cracow a court for city
affairs, to which appeals from local municipal courts
were to be taken. This court was established to
obviate the need of appealing to the Courts of Mag-
deburg and Halle.
By special protection of the rights and safety of
merchants Kazimir gave an additional stimulus to
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND 61
Polish commerce. Poland was and still is the natural
bridge between Europe and the East. Commercial
routes between the Baltic and the Black Sea, between
Russia and the Hanseatic cities cross in Poland.
Some of the Polish cities, like that of Kalisz, ruined
during the recent war operations, were known in
antiquity. In the XlVth century a number of large
and prosperous cities, like Wroclaw (Breslau) and
Cracow were in constant touch with the largest trad-
FIG. 31 SUKIENNICE, THE ANCIENT CLOTH HALL OF CRACQW
ing centres of the world. The products of Polish in-
dustries were at the time successfully competing with
those of other industrial countries and Polish cloth
(polenschen Laken) compared favorably with that of
Flanders. Famous were the cloth-halls of Poland,
and that still standing in Cracow is a magnificent
example of Polish municipal architecture of the
middle ages.
To increase the natural advantages of the Polish
cities, Kazimir improved the roads, constructed
62 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
bridges, suppressed highway robbery, and built large
storehouses in the cities and along the roads and
navigable rivers. Through colonization he founded a
large number of new towns, encouraged industries
and navigation. He strengthened, by walls and
castles, the defenses of the country. To protect the
native merchants he promulgated a law whereby for-
eign merchants were debarred from retail sales. In
the development of the cities and in the growth of
their wealth and importance he saw a support of the
kingly power against the disquietingly growing
might and lawlessness of the magnates and nobility
and the independence of the church.
Kazimir's reforms and particularly the strong
executive arm of the government were strongly op-
posed by both the magnates and the clergy, and a
number of armed uprisings were organized, all of
which were suppressed by the King. He realized,
however, that reforms, no matter how wise or bene-
ficial, cannot be forced upon a nation by the superior
will of a sovereign, and that law and order cannot be
enforced unless they have the respect of the people.
To educate political leaders he founded an Academy
of Sciences in Cracow in the year 1364. This was the
second academy of the kind in Europe, that of Prague
preceding it by a few years only. For purposes of
comparison it may be of interest to state that the
University of Vienna was founded a year later, and
that of Heidelberg two years later. The University
of Erfurt was established in 1392, of Leipzig in 1409,
of Cologne and of Rostock in 1419, of Halle in 1694,
of Breslau in 1702, of Gottingen in 1736 and of Berlin
in 1809. The University of Moscow was founded in
the year 1755 and that of St. Petersburg in 1819.
Even before the founding of the Cracow Academy a
number of writers and scientists of high attainment
THE CONSOLIDATION OF POLAND 63
and originality appeared in Poland. The most dis-
tinguished of them was Ciolek, known by his Latin
name of Vitellio, who is considered as the founder of
the science of optics.
By the end of Kazimir's reign Poland was unified
politically, not only in the person of the King, but
through the legal, economic and social reforms which
he had been able to bring about. Well aware of the
profound changes which were taking place in the life
of contemporary Poland, he and his advisors endeav-
ored to frame legislation that would meet adequately
the new conditions. Expression was given to the
really true conception of the function of all legisla-
tion in the opening sentences of the Wislica Statute
which stated that "no one should wonder or con-
demn if, with the change of times, the customs and
laws also change." The evolutionary conception of
law, as thus expressed in this first Polish Statute, is
truly remarkable. The principle served as a guide for
future generations and Polish political thought indeed
never recognized immutability or fixity of state or-
ganization or of traditional legal concepts. The life
of the citizen was never fettered by rigid law en-
actments. On the contrary, laws were made to meet
newly arising conditions as soon as they became dis-
cernible. This explains the fullness of Polish life
which so often puzzled foreign observers, brought up
as they were under the traditions of absolutism. It
explains also both the strength and the weakness of
the Polish Republic.
Though Kazimir's foreign policy failed to bring
back into the Polish fold the lost provinces, yet for his
wise administration and peaceful achievements he is
known in Polish history as Kazimir the Great, who
"found Poland of wood and left her of stone."
FIG. 32 GENERAL, VIEW OF GRODNO
CHAPTER V.
The Union with Lithuania
With Kazimir the Great the Polish dynasty of
the Piasts came to an end in 1370. Kazimir was mar-
ried thrice but left no male heir. Long
don o^thT before his death the matter of succes-
Piast Dynasty Slon to the throne was widely discussed.
Realizing the growing dangers to the
country from the Order of the Cross on one side, and
from the German Empire, Bohemia and Branden-
burg, all united under one dynasty, on the other, the
King and the country saw the need of a permanent
union with another strong nation. The Hungarian
King Ludwig, son of Karl Robert and Elizabeth,
Kazimir's sister, was chosen heir to the Polish
throne. In acceding to this choice in preference to
a native Prince of the House of Piast the magnates
demanded certain guarantees from Ludwig. First,
that he would restore the lost provinces, particu-
larly Pomerania, to Poland; second, that no Polish
troops would be used in wars carried on in the inter-
ests of Hungary; third, that the public offices in
Poland would be given to Poles exclusively; and
fourth, that there would be no interference with home
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA 65
rule and with the privileges and exemptions in force
at the time. After having sworn to all the above
named guarantees, Ludwig was proclaimed heir to
the Polish throne without any opposition on the part
of the numerous Piast princes.
(J. Matey ko)
FIG. 33 LUDWIG (1370-1382)
In 1370 Ludwig, then King of Hungary, ascend-
ed the throne of Poland. Ambitious but narrow-
minded, he soon came into conflict with the Polish
nobles, whom he desired to subdue as he had subdued
the barons of his native land. Feeling against him
rose high when he tore Red Russia from Poland and
gave it to one of his friends with a feudatory title.
Great Poland openly rebelled. Soon, however, he en-
tered into a compromise with the nobles, particularly
those of Little Poland, over the matter of succession
to the Polish throne. Ludwig had no son, but he
66 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
had three daughters, and his desire was to leave a
throne to each of them.
To insure the consent of the nobles to the ac-
ceptance of his second daughter as Queen of Poland
he entered into a pact with them by
The Origin which, for the support of his daughter,
he promised the restoration of the lost
Concessions r . .,
in Favor of the provinces, reconfirmed his pre-corona-
Nobiiity tion guarantees and offered certain ad-
ditional privileges, and a practical ex-
emption from taxes, except on land, and those were
made very low. This famous covenant-of-JLoszyxe,
made in 1374, introduced a new feature into the
political life of the country. Henceforth the Kings of
Poland were forced to make certain agreements
before their titles and prerogatives were recognized
by the nobles. The other importance that attaches
to this covenant lies in the fact that for the first time
in Polish history class privileges received legal sanc-
tion. Heretofore only individuals had been granted
exemptions. Now the whole nobility, or knighthood,
as a class, were given certain special privileges.
After the death of Ludwig, in 1382, an open
revolt broke out against his daughter Mary, who was
betrothed to Siegmund, Markgrave of
The First Brandenburg, and son of Emperor Karl
Civil War IV It f d that through such a
Over Royal . fe , ,
Succession union German domination would again
be forced upon Poland. During the in-
terregnum lasting two years, Jadwiga, the younger
daughter of the deceased king, married to an unim-
portant German prince, was agreed upon as Queen of
Poland by the confederacy of Great Poland, with the
specific understanding, however, that the queen
reside permanently in Poland. This confederacy of
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA
67
FIG. 34 JADWIGA (1384-1399)
(J. Mateyko;
68
the nobility was the prototype of a political organiza-
tion which was peculiarly Polish, and which played
an important role in the future history of the
country.
After a fierce civil war among the various fac-
tions which desired to restore one of the native
princes to the throne, the youthful Jadwiga was
crowned as the sovereign of Poland on October 15,
1384.
The magnates of Little Poland, who, until the
maturity of the Queen, were to be the regents of the
country, now conceived a plan of anul-
The Union ling Jadwiga's marriage and uniting
with Lithuania Poland and Lithuania against their
^ D .' common enemy, the Order of the Cross,
Teuton through the marriage of the Queen with
Aggressive- the Lithuanian Prince Jagiello. At the
ness time Lithuania was in the throes of a
civil war skillfully grafted upon the
country by the intrigue of the Grand Master of the
Order, who, in a peaceful development of Lithuania
and her growing propensities toward Christianity,
saw a vanishing opportunity for further conquests.
The founder of the Lithuanian Empire was
Gedymin, 1315-1341, who had carried his successful
expeditions against the Northern Slavs and Ruthe-
nians as far as Pskov on the north and the Dnieper on
the east, and conquered Kieff on the south. Though
a pagan himself, Gedymin favored Roman Catholi-
cism, built churches in Wilno and Novogrodek, gave
his daughter, Anna Aldona, to Prince Kazimir the
Great, and intended to become a Christian himself,
but his plans were frustrated by the intrigues of the
Order of the Cross. After his death Lithuania be-
came divided among his sons. At the time of Jad-
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA 69
wiga's ascendance to the Polish throne Lithuania
consisted of two independent duchies, one with a
native Lithuanian population and the other com-
posed almost entirely of conquered Ruthenian terri-
tories. After a long feud between the rulers of the
two duchies, craftily supported by the Chevaliers of
the Cross, peace was established to make joint war
against the Order possible. This peace came at the
time w T hen the Polish statesmen were planning the
union with Lithuania.- It was not difficult to induce
Jagiello to make the first move. He consented to
receive baptism in accordance with the Roman
Catholic rites and to introduce Catholicism in Lithu-
ania. He also agreed to extend the privileges of the
nobility and pledged himself to restore to Poland her
lost provinces. The new covenant with the King
guaranteed : first, all Polish offices to the local
nobility; second, compensation for military service
outside of Poland; third, the right to elect judges of
certain courts; and fourth, jurisdiction over the peas-
ants in the landowners.
The first guarantee was a severe blow to concen-
tration of military power in the hands of the King,
for the commanders of the castles could
not be appointed from among other than
local nobles, and the second guarantee
Significance . , . r . , ..
of the Union P ut a restraint on his treedom with ret-
erence to foreign affairs. In divesting
the King of the power to appoint criminal judges the
nobles scored a great victory which was, however,
largely exploited by the magnates to further their
control over the rank and file of the nobility. The
fourth privilege gave the landlords supreme power
over their peasants.
With the coronation of Jagiello in 1386, who, on
70
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 35 WLADYSLAV JAGIELLO (1386-1434)
(J. Mateyko)
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA 71
baptism, took the Christian name of Wladyslav, all
of his domains in Lithuania proper, as well as in
White and Black Russia, Ukraine, Volhynia and else-
where, became integral parts of the Polish state.
These extensive lands over which Poland had waged
long wars thus became peacefully united with Poland.
At about the same time Red Russia was reclaimed from
Hungary by force of arms, and the Hospodar of Mol-
davia, seeking protection, against Hungary, paid
homage to King Jagiello and became his vassal. In
1389 Wallachia recognized Polish sovereignty, and
in 1396 Bessarabia followed the course of her neigh-
bors. In this way Poland reached the lower Danube
and Dnieper and the shores of the Black Sea. A
strong, healthy colonization movement again re-
sumed its natural course into the sparsely settled ter-
ritories of Ruthenia, Volhynia and the fertile plains
between the Dniester and the Dnieper, carrying with
it advanced agriculture, industries and prosperity,
law, order, language and literature. The Polish in-
fluence had not died out in what is now Roumania
until the beginning of the past century. A hundred
years ago Polish still was the language of the upper
classes of that country.
Polish science took a powerful upward swing
after the reorganization of the Kazimirian Academy
The University "! 14 - Q lleen J adwi g a . a noble and
of Cracow pious woman, bequeathed her personal
wealth for the endowment and enlarge-
ment of the Academy. A School of Theology was
added to the existing departments. King Jagiello,
after whom the University had been named, gave in
perpetuity the income from certain domains toward
the maintenance of the institution. The charter, or-
ganization and character of the old Academy was
changed. The bishops of Cracow became the heredj-
72
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
TH UNION WITH LITHUANIA 73
tary ex-officio chancellors of the Academy and the
professors, students, librarians and other officers were
organized into a university corporation and came
under special jurisdiction. The office of the Rector
of the University was made elective, the incumbent
to be chosen from among the professors.
jBractica aecalaurij Dofya
ma iCracouientfs ue tjaffutt-
FIG. 36 A BACHELOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CRACOW WITH
THE ZODIAC
Soon the fame of the new university spread
over all Europe and attracted a large number of
scholars and students from foreign countries. In
the second half of the XVth century almost one-half
of the students enrolled were of foreign birth.* The
total enrollment was very large and both the student
body and the teaching staff were recruited from all
*L. Litwinski "Intellectual Poland," N. Y. The Polish Book
Importing Co., Inc., 1916, p. 32.
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
strata of society. Beside the sons of the potentates
sat young men from the humbler ranks of nobility,
of city birth and even peasants.
By means of large donations wealthy patrons in-
creased the endowment and opportunities of the
FIG. 37 THE SCEPTRES OF THE UNIVERSITY
Academy. Several commodious and well equipped
college dormitories were built, and a number of pre-
paratory schools established. The stimulus given by
the Academy to the intellectual life of the country
was pronounced and beneficent. "The University
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA
75
became the living link connecting Poland with Euro-
pean education and science. ... It gave rise to that
PIG. 38 THE COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
union of Poland with the civilization of the west,
which moulded the country's character and history,
76 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and which has left on her an imprint so strong that
nothing can remove it.""
At the time the University was reorganized,
theological questions were occupying the minds of
the greatest thinkers of Europe. The Cracow Acad-
emy came at once to the front in these discussions
and made important contributions. The respect with
which the ecclesiastical world listened to the disser-
tations of the Polish scholars and the influence they
FIG. 39 VOYCIECH OF BRUDZEV, MATHEMATICIAN AND ASTRONOMER,
TEACHER OF COPERNICUS
exercised at the deliberations of the great Church
synods of the XVth century is an eloquent tribute to
the scholarship of the Academy. In spite of the pre-
occupation of the faculty with problems of theology
and the control the Church exercised over the teach-
ing at the University, Humanism found an early
echo at Cracow. Great as was the reputaton of the
University for its theological dissertations, it was
insignificant in comparison with the renown it
* S. Tarnowski, "Historya literatury polskiej," Krakow, 1903,
p. 29-30.
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA 77
gained by its contributions to science. The mathe-
matical and astronomical works of Voyciech of
Brudzev, the medical knowledge of Matthew of
Miechow and the glory of the immortal Copernicus,
astronomer and economist, placed the Jagiellon Uni-
versity among the foremost European temples of
learning.
FIG. 40 THE SEAL OF THE CRACOW UNIVERSITY IN THE DAYS OF
WLADYSLAV JAGIEL.LO
For Lithuania the union with Poland had the
most far-reaching political and cultural advantages.
The impor- The civilization of Lithuania was very
tance of the low at the time. Slavery was the basis
Union of her social and economical structure,
for Lithuania The p r j nce ' s power was absolute. He
was supreme lord over the life and death of his
subjects. The Lithuanian nobles or "boyars" held
lands as feudatories and had no right to dispose of
them. Without the permission of the prince they
could not even marry. Through the union with
Poland the "boyars" received many rights and privi-
leges similar to those which the Polish nobility en-
joyed. The introduction of the Roman Church and
78
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the spread of the standards of European civilization
which came with the mighty tide of Polish coloniza-
tion brought Lithuania into the family of western
nations. She shook off the influence of the east to
which she had nearly succumbed under the influence
of Northern Slavic and Ruthenian peoples, who
were under her sovereignty and whose life standards,
though low, were still higher than those of the Lithu-
anians. Before the union with Poland Ruthenian had
FIG. 41 THE NEW BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY (COLLEGIUM NOVUM)
become the language of the court and of the nobles.
Though crude, it was superior to the Lithuanian
tongue which never developed into a literary lan-
guage.
By uniting with Poland, Lithuania could freely
concentrate her energy on the Order of the Cross, as
the wars with Poland for the supremacy over Ruthe-
nian provinces naturally ceased. This was a great
political advantage.
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA
79
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 42 DUKE WITOI/D OF LITHUANIA
The enemies of Poland and Lithuania were quick
to perceive that this union of the two countries was
against their interests and decided to
bring- about its disruption. For this
Position in the .... , f . ,
Dual State purpose they utilized Jagiello s cousin,
the indomitable Duke Witold, who was
the ruler of another part of Gedymin's empire, and
who had temporarily abandoned the old feud which
existed between his father and Jagiello. Entangled
80 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
in the web cleverly spun by the Order of the Cross,
the ambitious Witold declared war against Jagiello.
To stop the bloody civil strife Jagiello appointed
Witold the sole Governor of all Lithuania and Ruthe-
nia. Witold accepted the appointment and adopted
the title of Grand Duke of Lithuania. Order was soon
restored in the domains under Witold's rule and ex-
tensive foreign conquests were made. He recaptured
Smolensk, which remained under Polish sovereignty
for over a hundred years, until 1514; the republics of
Pskov and Novgorod also came under his control.
These successes, together with his far-reaching
schemes of capturing Moscow and crushing its over-
lords, the Tartars, led him subsequently to refuse to
pay tribute to Jadwiga and her husband. But the
defeat he suffered at the hands of the Tartar Khan
led to another treaty between Poland and Lithuania
in 1401, by which Witold was recognized as Grand
Duke of Lithuania for life, but after his death the
duchy was to revert forever to the Polish crown. In
the adoption of this new treaty the Lithuanian boyars
for the first time in their history took part in matters
of state, and officially concurred in the stipulations
of the treaty. By a special document the Polish
nobles promised the Lithuanian boyars that after
Jagiello's death no king would be elected without
their knowledge and consent.
In the course of one of his wars with Jagiello,
as payment for help Witold ceded to the Order of the
Cross that part of the territories abut-
:?i/T? tm g on tne Baltic which lie between
of the Order . XT- 11 T^
of the Cross tne JMiemen and the Dvma, known as
Zmudz. When the union with Poland
was restored he realized that he had made a bad
bargain and demanded the return of the province.
The warlike Master of the Order, Ulrich von Jun-
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA
81
FIG. 43 SOME OF THE STANDARDS OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE CROSS
CAPTURED IN THE BATTLE OF GRUNWAL.D
82
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
gingen, answered by sending an overwhelming ex-
pedition, joined by the best troops of Brandenburg,
Hungary, Stettin and volunteers from all over
Europe. They were met by an army of one
hundred thousand Poles, Lithuanians and their vas-
FIG. 44 "BOGARODZICA," THE EARLIEST KNOWN POLISH NATIONAL
HYMN AND WAR SONG. IT WAS TO THE STRAINS OF THIS SONG THAT
THE POLISH KNIGHTHOOD HURLED ITSELF AGAINST THE
BLOODY ORDER OF THE CROSS AND OVERPOWERED IT
sals at Grunwald in the Mazurian Lakes region, a
little south of the recent battlefield of Tannenberg,
where the Russians met with such disastrous defeat
at the hands of von Hindenburg. Five hundred years
ago the same battlefield saw the crushing defeat of
THE UNION WITH LITHUANIA 83
the Teutons. The might and glory of the Order was
forever shattered, and Poland soared up as one of the
most powerful states of Europe, extending from the
Baltic to the Black Sea, and from the Oder and the
Carpathians to the Dnieper.
This stupendous victory welded more firmly the
bonds uniting the peoples of Poland and Lithu-
ania. In the year 1413 the representatives of the
nobility and clergy of the two countries met at
Horodlo, on the River Bug, in Volhynia, and con-
firmed the previous treaties between the two coun-
tries. It was agreed to introduce into Lithuania the
Polish institutions and offices, and, in the future, to
call joint political conventions of representatives of
the two countries. The coats-of-arms of the Polish
nobility was given to the Lithuanian boyars of the
Roman Catholic faith to express by this outward sign
of brotherhood the spirit permeating the union of the
two nations, which was so beautifully worded in the
sentences of the Horodlo treaty: "He shall receive no
grace of salvation whom love does not sustain ....
It is love that creates laws, rules nations, builds cities
and leads the republic to her best destinies, perfects
all virtues of the virtuous .... Therefore, we pre-
lates, knights and nobility of the Polish crown by this
document do unite our homes and future generations
with the knighthood and nobility of Lithuania."
FIG. 45 GENERAL, VIEW OF DANZIG
The Settle-
ment of
Difficulties
with Lithuania
CHAPTER VI.
Oligarchial Rule in Poland
The sentiments voiced in the treaties with Lithu-
ania were expressions of a lofty political ideal which
the Lithuanian people, due to their
political immaturity, were slow to appre-
ciate at first. The far-sighted Witold
of Lithuania realized the great impor-
tance of the union, as only thus united
could Poland and Lithuania withstand the pressure
exerted upon them by their neighbors. But his ambi-
tions would not allow him to become entirely recon-
ciled to an inferior role, and he never could tolerate
having Poland play the master part. After the battle
of Grunwald he suddenly withdrew from the field,
and by this action prevented Jagiello from exploiting
the victory in a way which the defeat suffered by the
Knights justified. The city of Malborg, capital of the
Order, remained in the hands of the Knights, who, by
the breathing spell afforded through the retirement
of the Lithuanians and Ruthenians, were able to
gather their scattered forces. This was the reason
that Jagiello could obtain from the Order only the
recession of Zmudz, and an indemnity of one hundred
thousand bushels of small Prague silver coins.
OLIGARCHAL RULE IN POLAND 85
Subsequently, on account of Witold's ambition
and the nefarious intrigues of the Knights, a new war
with the Order broke out, which lasted for a number
of years and the settlement of which was entrusted to
the Church Council of Constance. For a long time
Witold held the unruly princes of his domains in an
iron grip and compelled them to respect the union, but
toward the end of his life he again fell prey to the
enticements of the German Emperor, who offered him
a separate crown. The emperor looked with disfavor
upon the union of the two countries, and in order to
sever it, took advantage of the vanity and ambitions
of the old prince. Only the energetic intervention of
the magnates of Little Poland and the death of
Witold prevented a disruption of the union.
The elements in Lithuania which were least
benefited by the union were the Ruthenian princes
and boyars belonging to the Greek Church, who had
been denied the dignities, rights and privileges of the
Roman Catholic nobility. The death of Witold in
1430 afforded opportunity for an open revolt. The
Lithuanians and Ruthenians proclaimed Swidry-
giello, the youngest brother of the King, Grand Duke
of Lithuania, in violation of the existing treaties with
Poland by which Lithuania, after the death of
Witold, was to return to the sovereignty of Poland.
To avoid possible hostilities Jagiello recognized
Swidrygiello's title, but in spite of this, the latter,
incited by the Emperor and the Order, declared war.
He suffered a serious defeat at Lutsk in 1431. Mean-
while the Teutonic knights again invaded the prov-
ince of Great Poland and burned twenty-four cities
and over a thousand villages. Poland was then com-
pelled to ask for a truce of two years.
Because of his ill success in arms and his policy
of fostering the religious schism Swidrygiello was
86 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
forced from his throne by his subjects. He was re-
placed by Zygmunt, one of Witold's brothers, who,
by the treaty of Grodno, in 1432, was recognized by
Jagiello as Grand Duke of Lithuania, with the under-
standing, however, that Lithuania's independence
would cease with Zygmunt's death. By the same
Grodno treaty the nobles of Lithuania and Ruthenia,
who were of the Greek faith, were admitted to full
citizenship, and were given Polish escutcheons on
equal terms with the Roman Catholic nobles. Con-
sidering the prevailing feelings and prejudices of the
Roman Catholic world of the XVth century, one can-
not but admire the spirit of the convention which, in
this noble way, endeavored to lay solid foundations
for the extension of the Polish state and to base them
upon principles of justice and equality.
By the trend of events narrated in this and the
subsequent chapters, these political ideals of justice
and equality were in time narrowed
The ^^ down in their application to but one
Privileges* class the nobility, a term which in time
of the Nobility became synonymous with citizenship in
Poland, and which did not necessarily
imply ownership of land.
The Polish nobility came into existence at a time
when the Poles were in a comparatively early stage
of social development, when the clan was the basic
unit of the social structure. With the introduction
of escutcheons, whole clans were admitted to nobility.
In this manner, unlike the other European nations,
where nobility developed in a relatively later stage
of social evolution, a great many elements of a low
economic and social status became nobles, and this
also accounts for the fact that there were proportion-
ately more nobles in Poland than in Western Europe,
and that there were no differences in the grades of
OL1GARCHAL RULE IN POLAND 87
nobility as found among other nations. The subse-
quent additions to the nobility were also numerous
and were accomplished either through adoption or the
conferring of nobiliary honors. The former method,
which required the consent of the clan, was the usual
practice until theXIVth century, when it was replaced
by that of nobilitation by the king, who, in an earlier
period, conferred his own escutcheon upon the candi-
date, admitting him, as it were, to his own clan. At a
later date various coats-of-arms were bestowed at the
nobilitation ceremonies. All those who had an es-
cutcheon were nobles. The possession of land was
not a necessary prerequisite to a title of nobility, but
those of the nobility who were land owners in some
instances enjoyed special privileges. /
In the time of Wladyslav Jagiello the nobility *
became strongly differentiated from the other classes
of society, and the magnates among the nobility ac-
quired almost absolute power in matters of state.
Many causes were responsible for the development of
an oligarchic monarchy in Poland at that time. The
King was an uneducated foreigner who had to rely
upon native advisers to gain popularity. Unscrupu-
lous and powerful magnates took advantage of this
circumstance to secure for themselves privileges in
addition to those granted to them and to the nobility
in general by the Koszyce Pact with King Ludwig in
1374, and subsequently by King Jagiello at the time
of his coronation in 1386. Moreover, the almost in-
cessant wars which Jagiello was obliged to carry on
required great sacrifices in men and wealth. To ob-
tain them he had to make frequent requests of the
nobles and magnates who, in return for their services,
demanded concessions and privileges. The war taxes
weighed heavily upon them, and, as many of the
nobility were poor, the constantly increasing tax
H8
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
levies tended to impoverish them still further. This
accounts for the fact that in spite of the broadened
political privileges gained, the rank and file of the
nobility were unable to assert themselves in the
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 46 CARDINAL ZBIGNIEW OLESNICKI
government. In the local conventions called by them
from time to time they demanded reforms and partici-
pation in the affairs of the country on the basis of
the principle of "no taxation without representation."
OLIGARCHAL RULE IN POLAND 89
Bending to their will, the king would frequently
submit his more important projects to the approval
of these conventions. The custom took firm root, and
the nobility did not miss a single opportunity of
insisting upon their rights and of endeavoring to
obtain further privileges.
On the eve of an expedition against the Teutonic
Knights in 14,22, the nobility assembled at Czerwinsk
and obtained, in return for the promise of participa-
tion in the expedition, several economic and fiscal
privileges, and the recognition of the principle that a
nobleman's property cannot be confiscated without
due process of law. In 1430, only two centuries after
the Magna Charta, and almost a century before the
English "habeas corpus law" was enacted, the Polish
nobles secured at Jedlnia, in consideration of the re-
cognition of the claims of Jagiello's sons to the throne
of Poland, the famous privilege: "Neminem captiva-
bimus, nisi jure victum," according to the terms of
which no nobleman could be arrested except upon the
verdict of a court or when caught in the act of com-
mitting murder, arson or theft. The same Jedlnia
Act required the consent of the nobles to the coinage
of money by the king.
The privileges gained by the nobles, which re-
sulted in restrictions of the regal power, were also
aimed at the magnates, who usurped all
*-pv A
the hisrh state offices and exercised un-
cendency of , i -, , T^I.
Ecclesiastical dlie P ower over legislation. This cir-
Power cumstance led the clergy to side with
the nobles against the magnates. With
the help of the nobles the clergy soon secured control
over the destinies of the country, its government, edu-
cation and foreign policy.
Jagiello was married four times, and only by his
last wife was there male issue. The first son, Wladvs-
90 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
lav, was born ten years before Jagiello's death. Upon
the ascent to the throne of Poland by the youthful
king, the regency of the country was placed in the
hands of Zbigniew Olesnicki, Bishop of Cracow, and
later Cardinal, a man of power and ambition, who had
already played a very conspicuous part in the affairs
of the country at the. close of Jagiello's reign. During
the regency he became practically omnipotent. It
was because of this ecclesiastic rule in Poland that
the union with Bohemia, eagerly sought by the Hus-
sites, did not come to pass. As is well known, the
Huss movement in Bohemia was partly religious and
economic, but principally nationalistic. It was the
uprising of the middle and lower classes of Bohemia
against the German rule and the supremacy of Ger-
man influences. The upper strata of the Bohemian
nation were at that time completely Germanized and
had assumed German names. The ruling dynasty of
the kingdom was that of Luxemburg. When Huss
was treacherously burned at the stake in the year of
the Council of Constance, 1415, an open revolution
broke out in Bohemia, which lasted for a period of
over fifteen years. The Catholic clergy were banished
and Hussitic services introduced. The Taborites, or
radical wing of the Hussites, destroyed many castles
and churches. In 1419 the Bohemian King died and
the throne was to pass to his brother, Emperor Sieg-
mund. The Hussites then turned to Jagiello with an
offer of the crown of Bohemia. The Polish clergy im-
mediately raised a cry against it. The Archbishop of
Gnesen, Nicholas Tromba, who, at the Council of
Constance, was a candidate for the Papal tiara, called
a synod at Kalisz, which resolved to bend every effort
to crush the spread of the Huss doctrines in Poland
and to deal sharply with the heretics. At the same
time Emperor Siegmund, in order to gain Polish sup-
OLIGARCHAL RULE IN POLAND 91
port, approached the Polish sovereign widower, of-
fering the hand of his sister-in-law, with a dowry of
the much-coveted Province of Silesia. The marriage
did not come to pass. Neither did the union with Bo-
hemia. Submitting to the pressure of the powerful
clergy, Jagiello reluctantly refused the Bohemian
crown. The Czechs then turned to Witold, who ac-
cepted the invitation on condition that they make
peace with the Church. He converted King Jagiello
to his views, and soon an armed expedition, under the
leadership of Zygmunt Korybut, the king's nephew,
was ready. This action led the Pope, Martin V, to
proclaim a crusade against Poland, and the Emperor
started to form a coalition against Jagiello and
Witold. In view of this coercion and also in view of
the fact that Korybut did not succeed in reconciling
the Czechs to the Church, Witold was compelled to
resign from his plans.
Due to the ceaseless work of the clergy the reac-
tion against the Hussites in Poland reached its apogee
in the edict of Wielun, 1424, which com-
manded all the Poles residing in Bo-
Hussitism hernia to return to Poland, and those
in Poland of the Poles who were suspected of sym-
pathies with the heretics were turned
over to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Bishop Olesnicki,
who was responsible for the edict, was also instru-
mental in bringing about the meeting of the Emperor
with Jagiello and Witold, at which they promised to
recall the armed expedition from Bohemia. Soon after-
ward Emperor Siegmund died and again the Czechs
turned to Poland with an offer of the crown. At that
time Olesnicki was regent, Wladyslav III, the youth-
ful son of Jagiello, being King of Poland. It goes
without saying that the offer was again declined.
A large portion of the nobility, under the leadership
92 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of Spytek of Melsztyn, Abraham of Zbonz and others,
protesting against what they considered a short-
sighted policy, bound themselves into an armed
confederacy. They were defeated and their followers
dispersed. After their defeat, Hussitism in Poland
came to a speedy end, but the dissatisfaction with
the ecclesiastical regime, which was responsible
for increased taxation, for a disastrous war with
Turkey, and which failed to exploit the possibility
of a union with Bohemia, grew and bore fruit with
the ascent of Kazimir Jagiellonczyk, the second of
Jagiello's sons, to the throne of Poland.
The above mentioned war with Turkey was a
direct consequence of Olesnicki's plan to secure the
crown of St. Stephen's for King Wladys-
The Turkish j av jjj ? d u nng whose childhood he had
Campaign for managed the a ff a i rs o f the country. The
the Liberation . J
of the Balkan union with Hungary was to compensate
Slavs the loss of Bohemia and to pacify the
minds of those who were dissatisfied
with his policy regarding the Czechs. Moreover,
the union would have given an opportunity of
rendering services to Christianity by expeditions
against the infidel Turks, who, for almost a century,
had established themselves in Europe and were
threatening western civilization. Hungary had been
carrying on constant wars against the Ottomans, and
of late John Hunyadi had achieved great fame in his
campaigns against them. The union with Hungary
under the existing circumstances was most unpopular
among the Polish magnates, who foresaw the burdens
it would impose and the difficulties into which it
might lead the country. The contrary view, how-
ever, championed by Olesnicki, prevailed and soon
after his coronation the youthful Wladyslav III or-
ganized a crusade to liberate the Serbs, Bosnians and
OLIGARCHIAL RULE IN POLAND 93
other Balkan peoples from the Turkish yoke. Large
Polish forces joined the Hungarians. The first cam-
paign in 1443 was very successful. After his dis-
astrous defeat at Nish the Sultan Amurad asked for
peace and offered as a price the return of Serbia,
Albania and the other provinces which the Turks had
FIG. 47 WLADYSLAV III
taken from Hungary; he also offered to evacuate a
large number of fortresses and to release all war
prisoners, and an indemnity of one hundred thousand
florins in gold. The terms were so extraordinary that
no one believed that the Sultan could ever respect
them, but with the advice of Hunyadi and other con-
servative men, peace was agreed upon at Szegedin
on August 1, 1444. The news was received with joy in
Poland. The home affairs of the country demanded
the king's attention. A special assembly of nobles
was immediately called at Piotrkow. Unfortunately,
04 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
however, the Papal legate, Cardinal Julian de Cesar-
inis, was able to persuade the warrior boy-king that
his oath of peace with the infidels was not binding,
and that in the interest of the Church war should be
resumed immediately. On the 24th of September,
less than- two months after the treaty of Szegedin,
Wladyslay was again in the field. The only ally
whicfc kept his promise to help in this expedition was
.Wallachia. The Greeks and the Serbs did not send
the promised assistance. Overwhelming Turkish
forces surrounded the Christian army at Varna on
November 10, 1444, and almost entirely annihilated
it. The Polish King met his death on the battlefield.
"He was the only king in a Christian state," says the
Polish historian Bartoszewicz, "who desired disin-
terestedly to save Christianity." But he succeeded
only in dragging, his country into countless diffi-
culties.
The deceased king's brother, Kazimir Jagiellon-
czyk, who had been discharging the office of Grand
Duke of Lithuania, was very slow in
The Sub- ascending the Polish throne to which
ordination of , 3 , j 1 ,1 u-i-i.
the Church ne was e l ec ted by the nobility, as-
to the State sembled in April, 1445, at Sieradz. The
chief reasons for his procrastination
were his ambition to restore to Lithuania the
provinces of Volhynia and Podolia, which were ad-
ministered by Polish Governors, and his disinclina-
tion to subscribe to the liberties and privileges of
the clergy and nobility. When, after many fruitless
presentations, the king remained recalcitrant and
insisted that the two provinces be put under Lithu-
anian control, and that he be not compelled to sign
the pacta conventa, the magnates conditionally elect-
ed Boleslav of Mazovia. Thus threatened, Kazimir
accepted the crown on June 18, 1447, without, how-
95
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 48 KAZIMIR JAGIELLONCZYK (1447-1492)
96 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
ever, for the time being, taking an oath for the preser-
vation of the privileges granted by his predecessors.
His first act after the coronation was to curb the
power of the clergy by subordinating the church to
the state. This effort found a sympathetic echo
among the nobles, and was in accord with the then
modern precepts of Humanism, which, in spite of the
medieval teachings of the Cracow University, were
taking root in Poland, and had a warm supporter in
the energetic and wise young king. The gentry was
at odds with the Church at the time over the ways the
tithes were collected. In view of the enormous de-
preciation of currency it was to the advantage of the
nobles to pay the tithes in specie. For the same
reason the Church insisted that the tax be paid in
kind. The struggle over this issue lasted for many
decades. The efforts of the Polish ruler were
strengthened by the then existing schism in the
Church. As is well known, the cause that led to the
schism was the question of the superiority of the
Council over the Pope. The Council of Basel, 1431-
1449, holding an affirmative view on the subject, de-
clared Pope Eugene IV, who was of the opposite
opinion, deprived of his dignity and elected Felix V
in his place. Bishop Olesnicki, who at that time was
regent of Poland, concurred in the view laid down by
the Council of Basel, but proclaimed the country's
neutrality with reference to the two popes, an attitude
which prevailed until the ascent of Kazimir Jagiel-
lonczyk. The new king saw in the schism an oppor-
tunity to secure the coveted privileges, and informed
Pope Nicholas VI, Eugene's successor, of his readi-
ness to recognize him, provided the right of nomina-
tion to ninety benefices in the arch-diocese of Gnesen
be granted to him, as well as a part of the church
OLIGARCHAL RULE IN POLAND 97
tithes, which he needed for a war with the Tartars.
This recognition of the Pope Nicholas VI, in opposi-
tion to the Cracow University and to Bishop Oles-
nicki, as well as the king's success in securing from the
Pope the desired concessions, were a great blow to
the ecclesiastical power in Poland. The victory was
clinched when the king, after an obstinate fight es-
tablished, in 1460, his appointee at the See of Cracow.
The nomination of bishops then became a recognized
attribute of the Polish sovereign.
The fight of the king with the Church was grati-
fying to the nobles, but they were restless over the
fact that no recognition of their own
with the" gg e privileges was forthcoming. Bound, on
Oligarchy one hand, by his promise to return the
provinces of Volhynia and Podolia to
Lithuania, and, on the other, pressed by the Poles to
take an oath on their liberties, the king tarried with
the convocation of the Diet, fearing that the existing
tension between Lithuania and Poland might lead
to a disruption of the union. He was also desirous of
postponing the sanction of the Polish liberties to
which he was politically and temperamentally averse,
and which tended to saddle an oligarchic rule upon
the country.
The Lithuanian claims were finally granted by
the Poles, but in practice, only Volhynia came under
Lithuanian control, Podolia remaining with Poland.
The king seized upon the retention of Podolia as an
excuse for opposing the Poles, who were clamoring
for a recognition of their privileges. A strong oppo-
sition arose with Bishop Olesnicki at its head. Only
in 1453, six years after his coronation, did the king
finally swear to respect and preserve the liberties
granted by his 'predecessors. He also submitted to
the demand for an advisory council of four digni-
98 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
taries, without whose consent he should undertake
nothing of importance. The king's submission to this
demand was a signal victory for the magnates. The
privileges sanctioned by the king, though embracing
the whole of the nobility, redounded chiefly to the
benefit of the wealthy potentates, and the great mass
of common nobility remained without relief in their
economic difficulties, caused by the constant wars
and the lack of security against the iniquities of the
lords.
In his fight against the aristocratic oligarchy the
king could not rely upon the cities as did the rulers of
other parts of Europe. The cities, which elsewhere
in Europe constituted the buttress of the kings
against the feudal lords, were, in Poland, losing their
strength after the fall of Constantinople and were, in
addition, inhabited in a large proportion by Germans,
Jews and Armenians, who took no great interest in
the matters of state and remained foreign to the
country in which they lived and traded for genera-
tions. The great mass of citizen-nobles constituted,
therefore, the only element which could be utilized
by the king to curb the oligarchy. External circum-
stances expedited the extension of the rights and
privileges of the Polish knighthood.
The Prussians, suffering from the heavy fiscal
burdens placed upon them by the Knights of the
Cross, and seeing greater economic ad-
Prussia's vantages for themselves by joining
AdS f n r Poland, turned to Kazimir with a re-
mto thTpolish quest that he accept them under his
State sovereignty. The union of the Prussian
nobility and of the cities, known as the
Lizard Union from the emblem it chose, repeatedly
petitioned the king to admit their country into the
fold of the Polish state, which guaranteed to its citi-
OLIGARCHAL RULE IN POLAND 99
zens liberty, safety and prosperity. The king's final
consent to their request, against the advice of Bishop
Olesnicki, led to a war with the Order. At the call
of the crown in 1454, great hosts of the nobles of
Great Poland assembled at Gerekwica, not far from
the city of Chojnice. Here they demanded of the
king an extension of their rights which, in view of
the impending war, was granted. Very soon after-
ward, a similar charter was granted to the nobility
of Little Poland, assembled in camp near the city of
Nieszawa. Th^si2it^i^^i_^iQS^2L^i3iy^l^^, were
made to apply to the nobility of the whole of Poland,
and constituted the beginning of a regular constitu-
tion in Poland. These statutes became in reality the
organic law of the country regulating the relation-
ship of the various classes constituting the Polish
nation. They abolished the usage of common law in
the courts of justice and introduced the general ap-
plication of the Wislica statutes as amended since
the time of Kazimir the Great. They also exempted
the nobility from the jurisdiction of the king's, courts
except in cases of murder, arson, theft and rape.
Henceforth all cases came before judges nominated
by the nobility and appointed by the king. The stat-
utes limited the rights of the peasants, of the towns-
people and of the Jews. They provided that no war
could be declared by the king without the consent of
the local land assemblies of the nobility, and that no
new constitution or any law which would apply to the
nobility could be promulgated by the king without
the consent of the local land assemblies. The king
was requested to attend the assemblies, either in
person or by proxy. The local land conventions were
to elect plenipotentiaries to represent them in the
larger or general gatherings, the time and place of
which was to be designated by the king. These gen-
100 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
eral assemblies, jointly with the king, had the power
to make laws for the whole country. Representatives
of the general assemblies were to convene at Piotr-
kow at stated intervals to advise the king in matters
relating to state business. The dignitaries, without
whose advice the king was not permitted to under-
take anything of importance, constituted the continu-
ation of the ancient Colloquium, which later de-
veloped into the Senate.
The war with the Order of the Cross, which
caused this internal revolution in Polish affairs, lasted
for twelve years, 1454-1466, and thanks to the unfal-
tering support of the Prussian towns and nobility,
ended in a complete triumph of the Polish arms. By
the treaty of Thorn, 1466, Pomerania, Chelmno and
Michalow and the western part of Prussia with the
cities of Malborg and Warmia, went to Poland. The
eastern part of Prussia, with its capital Krolewiec
(Konigsberg) remained in the hands of the Order as
a fief of Poland. The Great Master of the Order
pledged himeslf to recognize no other sovereigns ex-
cept the Pope and the Polish King, and to form no
alliance or declare war without the consent of the
King of Poland. In return, he received a seat in the
Polish Council of the Crown. The victory of Poland
over the Order was hailed with joy by the Prussian
nobles. They preferred the political liberties of
Poland to the iron rule of the Order and manifested
their sympathies by assuming Polish names. The
barons von der Baysen changed their family name to
Bazenski, the barons von Unruh to Niepokojczycki,
the counts von Hutten to Czapski, the von Oppelins
to Bronikowski and so along the line.
By the crushing of the Order and by the free
access to the Baltic and the possession of such ports
as that of Gdansk (Danzig), Poland became a great
. OLIGARCHAL RULE IN POLAND 101
political power, with inherent -pp^sibilities !foi au
enormous economic expansion, which was so un-
fortunately thwarted by the ensuing wars.
The war with the Order made it impossible for
Kazimir Jagiellonczyk to press his claims to the
thrones of Bohemia and Hungary, after
The Extension t h e childless death of Wladyslav Haps-
* Po burg, son of Emperor Albrecht, whose
Hungary and beautiful sister he had married. The
Bohemia Hungarians proclaimed Matthew Kor-
win, the son of John Hunyadi, as their
king, and the Bohemians chose George of Podiebrad,
a Hussite. The dissatisfied Catholic element in Bo-
hemia turned to Poland. Kazimir intervened, and
as a consequence his son ascended the throne of
Bohemia. Soon afterward Hungary, at the death of
Matthew Korwin, who left no legal sons, united with
Bohemia under the same sceptre. Polish influence
was, in this way, established over a wide area and in
foreign lands, but at the same time it was rapidly
waning in the old native province of Silesia. The
clergy of that province, guarding against the spread
of Hussitism which exercised such a peculiar fascina-
tion over the western Slavs, were Germanizing the
autochthonous population by all available means,
The Bishop of Breslau threatened with dispossession
those of his Polish peasant tenants who would not in
the course of five years adopt German customs and
the German speech.
A break with the Lithuanians was also impend-
ing in spite of the perils which threatened both
Poland and Lithuania from the Turks
rh f J urkish . in the south and from the growing ag-
and Muscovite . - , , TU
Perils gressivenes of Moscow on the east. 1 he
Turks settled on the Moldavian coast
of the Black Sea in 1480, and occupied Akerman and
103 THS POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Kilia, strong fortresses guarding the mouths of the
Dniester and" 'Danube, and endangered Polish trans-
continental commerce and the Polish political sover-
eignty in Moldavia. On the east, the expanding
autocracy of Moscow had already throttled the free
Russian republics of Pskov and Novgorod, and was
exhibiting disquieting designs for further conquests.
Lithuania became restless.
At the time when the foreign policy with refer-
ence to the new T ly arising conditions on the east was
being shaped, Kazimir died in Grodno on June 7,
1492, after a reign of forty-five years, rich in great
events, men and glory. His character and achieve-
ments gave him an illustrious name and a prominent
place in Polish History.
It was during the reign of Kazimir that Human-
ism gained a firm footing in Poland and a host of
talented poets, historians and political
Humanism in ,-, i i- -,
Poland thinkers sprang up. 1 he beginnings oi
Humanistic currents in Poland date as
far back as the second decade of the XVth century.
In a short while the new turn in literature and phil-
osophy found numerous adepts on the banks of the
Vistula. A literary society known as "Sodalitas
literaria vistulana" was organized at Cracow in 1489
composed of young enthusiastic poets and writers.
The classic authors were studied profoundly and
numerous literary productions ^hved the way for the
future development of national art and literature.
The Polish writers soon became masters of the classic
style and earned their laurels from the Popes, as did
Klemens Janicki (1516-1543). The tradition of Latin
letters continued well into the XVIIth century, al-
though the Polish language in literature had by that
time superseded Latin almost completely. For his
beautiful lyrics Matthew Sarbiewski (1595-1640), a
OLIGARCHAL RULE IN POLAND 103
professor at the University of Wilno, received the
laurel wreath at the Capitol of Rome, and for cen-
turies after his death his works in neo-Latin were
studied beside the Roman classics in the principal
colleges of Europe.
One of the earliest Humanists in Poland was
George of Sanok w.ho contributed a great deal toward
the awakening of interest in the ancient authors and
in their philosophy of life. He was soon over-
shadowed by a series of remarkable thinkers and
writers. The struggle for supremacy between the
King and the Church and the unsettled social condi-
tions created a body of original political thought.
Senator Jan Ostrorog (1420-1501) wrote a remark-
able treatise advocating the subjection of ecclesias-
tical power to that of the State. He advised the curb-
ing of the excessive prerogatives of the nobility and
urged the nationalization of cities, the equalization
of laws and the abolition of certain privileges. The
favorable reception which Ostrorog's theories re-
ceived in contemporary Poland is an indication of
political maturity of the Polish nobility, and also
shows how deeply the principles of sound political
thinking had become imbedded in Polish life. Po-
land's political experience radiated abroad. The work
"De Optimo Senatore" by Bishop Goslicki, of Posen
(known in Latin as Goslicius), was widely read and
commented upon all over Europe.
Just as the struggle of the Crown with the Church
called forth a whole literature on political and social
philosophy, so the controversy with the Knights of
the Cross, submitted to the Popes and Church Coun-
cils for adjudication, gave rise to juristic studies
and historical research. The able defense of Po-
land's claim against the Order presented in the
"Tractatus de potestate Papae et Imperatoris re-
104 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
spectu Infidelium"at the Council of Constance in 1415
by Paul of Brudzev, rector of the Cracow University
made the author famous in Europe. This is but one
of the numerous treatises prepared by Polish scholars
on the subject. Towering above all other writers
stands the historian Jan Dlugosz (1415-1480), who is
considered superior to the celebrated historians,
FIG. 49 JAN DLUGOSZ (I,ONGINUS)
Commineus and Guicciardini. The "History of
Poland" by Dlugosz, one time secretary of Car-
dinal Olesnicki, is one of the most profound his-
torical works of the XVth century. The erudition
of the author, the painstaking examination of the
sources, his searching criticism and gift of analysis
and observation, his masterful classifications and
method of presentation mark an era in history
writing and laid solid foundations for all future na-
tional histories of Poland.
OLIGARCHAL RULE IN POLAND
105
The end of the XVth century records Poland not
only as one of the largest empires of the continent
but as a country with a well developed and pro-
nounced culture of her own.
FIG. 50 POLISH WALL PAPER OF THE XVI CENTURY
CHAPTER VII.
The Republic of Nobles
Immediately after the death of Kazimir Jagiel-
lonczyk, John I Olbracht was elected King of Poland,
Th 1492-1501. The Lithuanians elected his
of Serfdom* 1 " 8 y oun g er brother, Alexander, as Grand
Duke of Lithuania in violation of the
existing agreements. The new king was educated in
accordance with the principles of Humanism, and,
like his father, was determined to resist the power of
the secular and temporal lords, and in these efforts
sided with the nobility, whose idol he had become.
The first two Diets which he convened during his
reign, in 1493 and 1496, both at Piotrkow, amplified
the statutes of Nieszawa. By the new law the nobility
were exempted from tariff duties and other fiscal
burdens, the peasants were restricted in their right
to leave their villages, and the landlords were given
the power to represent their peasants in the courts.
Thereafter no peasant could appear in court unac-
companied by his landlord. This last provision,
amplified by further statutes, finally threw the whole
peasantry into complete dependence upon the private
jurisdiction of the landowners. The peasants lost
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES 107
their right to leave their settlements without the per-
mission of the landowners, and the family could send
but one of their boys to study in a city. By a further
regulation they were not permitted to leave the coun-
try for seasonal work in neighboring states where
higher wages prevailed.
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 51 JAN I OI.BRACHT (1492-1501)
This movement to restrict the peasants coincides
with the opening of the Baltic and the accession
of the large Hanseatic port of Gdansk (Danzig),
through which a great opportunity presented itself
for selling Polish grain and other agricultural prod-
ucts in Europe. To be able to produce grain for ex-
port the landowners needed a reliable and cheap labor
force. Even prior to this time, as a result of the
enormous depreciation of currency that took place
in Poland, and similarly throughout Europe, in the
XVth and XVIth centuries a tendency had arisen
among the landlords to demand rent in the form of
108 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
services and produce rather than in specie, as had
been the custom since the days of the first German
settlements. Payment in services and other restric-
tions formed the foundation of serfdom. The year
v 1496 is regarded as the beginning of legal serfdom in
Poland, leading to a patrimonial form of agrarian
life, with the manor as the centre of every economic
unit, and the landlord the source of supreme law and
power. The same year ushered in the era of gradual
decline of Polish cities. From this brief account it
may be observed that the economic development of
Poland was in complete contrast to that of contem-
porary England.
As has been mentioned before, the cities and
towns of early Poland served chiefly as stations for
transitory foreign commerce. Such was
The Growth ^he original character of Kruszwica,
the d p e ih ne Cracow, Lemberg, Posen and Breslau.
Cities In a later period when the Germans
settlers changed the mode of Polish
urban life and made them the foci of various crafts
and industries, the cities became more closely fused
with the entire social and economic fabric of the state.
The cities, producing domestic utensils, cloth, beer
and other articles of daily use, began to exchange them
for the grain and other farm products of their im-
mediate vicinity. In the XHIth and XlVth centuries
the Polish cities produced broadcloths, metalware,
wire, tin sheets, swords, knives, paper, furniture,
glassware, bricks and pottery in considerable quan-
tities. In 1357 a whole street in the City of Cracow
was inhabited by glass-workers, and at Posen a glass
factory was established at the beginning of the
Xlllth century.
Aside from the local merchants, the Polish cities
had merchants who engaged in foreign commerce.
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES
109
They acted as intermediaries between the north and
south, and the east and the west. Salt, silks, spices,
wine, lemons, precious stones, trinkets and articles
of a similar nature were imported, and cloth, grain,
tallow, bristles, hides, furs, naval stores, lumber and
other raw products were exported. Cities like Lem-
berg were important commercial centers for foreign
FIG. 52 THE CITT HALL OF I/EMBERG IN THE XVI CENTURY
trade. Here were agents from many marts, such as
Venice, Holland and Constantinople. The earliest
exports of grain went to Holland, England and
France. At the initiative of Emperor Emanuel Pale-
olog, regular exports of Polish grain to Constanti-
nople began in the XlVth century. This was respon-
sible for the energetic colonization movement in
110
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
fertile Ruthenia during the reign of Kazimir the
Great. The Levant trade had always been a very
important item in the commercial business of the
country, and the fall of Constantinople proved to be
disastrous to the prosperity of the ancient and most
(W. Lozinski)
FIG. 53 A HOUSE OP A WEALTHY POLISH BURGESS OF LEMBERG,
CONSTANTINE KORNIAKT
important Polish cities. The difficulties put in the
way of the Polish merchants by the Order of the
Cross controlling the Baltic seacoast were relieved
after the Jagiellon victory at Grunwald, in 1410, as
considerable concessions were then obtained. In 1466
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES
Prussia, with its seaports, became a part of Poland,
and the whole course of the Vistula came back under
FIG. 54 THE TRIPTYCH OF THE HIGH ALTAR AT THE CHURCH OF THE
HOLY VIRGIN MARY AT CRACOW. THE WORK OF VIT STWOSZ
the control of Poland. It afforded a great boom to
commerce and agriculture, particularly since under
the progressive law promulgated by Kazimir Jagiel-
11 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
lonczyk, in 1447, all navigable rivers were declared
the property of the Crown and therefore public prop-
erty, free for general use. Large freight fleets sailed
back and forth upon the Vistula, carrying endless
cargoes of wheat, rye, hemp, tar, honey, wax, bristles,
fats, lumber, skins and furs to Danzig. The acquisi-
tion of Danzig and such other ports as Klaypeda
(Memel) and Krolewiec (Konigsberg) resulting in
an enormous increase in exports, caused a revolution
in the economic and political life of the country.
Its effect upon the organization of agriculture and
FIG. 55 VIT STWOSZ, THE FAMOUS POLISH SCULPTOR
OF THE XV CENTURY.
the lot of the peasant has been mentioned. The
nearer the district was to the Vistula and the easier
the access to that Nile of Poland, the sooner were
changes visible, and the earlier did the peasant lose
his individual liberty and become a serf.
The enormous growth of exports produced a
marked effect upon the cities. Due to the introduc-
tion of credit on a most extensive scale, they grew in
wealth, and numerous families acquired enormous
riches. At one time five European sovereigns were
entertained by a merchant in Cracow. Private pal-
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES 113
aces, artistic public buildings and beautiful churches
adorned the towns. Art flourished. Vit Stwosz, the
great Polish sculptor of the time, who designed the
triptych of the high altar in the Church of the Holy
Virgin Mary, was not a mere accident. He was a
product of his milieu. Many foreign, particularly
Italian, architects were brought over to design public
and private buildings. In daily life the burghers wore
FIG. 56 MERCHANTS OF CRACOW OF THE XVI CENTURY
sumptuous dress of silk and lace, fine furs, gold, jew-
elry and precious stones. "Poor, indeed, was the master
artisan or merchant who did not use silver tableware
at home and whose wife did not possess a bonnet or-
namented with pearls." The many gold, silver and
bronze candelabra, chandeliers, candlesticks and
other domestic utensils left from that period, still
found in churches, museums and in private families
114
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
as heirlooms, bring testimony to the prosperity and
high standards of the cities of the XlVth and XVth
centuries. The chroniclers and other writers give us
absorbingly interesting descriptions of city life.
FIG. 57 AN ANCIENT POLISH CHANDELIER
The cities were clean and salubrious. Life was
quiet, industrious and moral, particularly in the
earlier centuries. Private property was regarded as
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES 115
a sanctity, and the smallest theft was punished
severely, sometimes by death. Heavy punishment
was similarly visited upon dissolute women.
The houses in the cities were built of stone or
brick and covered with tile roofs. In the XVIth cen-
tury all new houses were required to be built of stone,
eliminating the waste and danger of fires. To help
the poorer inhabitants to rear more expensive struc-
tures the city fathers exempted their properties from
FIG. 58 AN ENAMELLED PENDANT, WORK OF THE POLISH
JEWELLERS' GUILD OF THE XVII CENTURY
all taxation for long periods of time, frequently for
twenty years or more. At the end of the XVth and
the beginning of the XYIth centuries all the principal
cities established municipal waterworks, and pipes
carried the water to every house. Sanitary regula-
tions were numerous and strict. Since the XHIth or
XlVth century there was not a city in all Poland
which did not have a hospital, an almshouse and a
free public bath. In the larger cities physicians were
employed to visit regularly the hospitals and to super-
116 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
vise the drug stores. In cases of contagious disease
home quarantine was maintained, and during epidem-
ics large numbers of physicians were employed by
the city, and indigent persons received free food to
sustain their vitality and resistance. By law, graves
were dug three yards deep.
The fire regulations were very definite. Many
cities awarded special prizes to those who were most
proficient in extinguishing fires. Chimney sweepers
were retained in every town, and in many cities the
FIG. 59 A COURTYARD OF AN OLD POLISH HOUSE IN CRACOW
building of narrow streets was prohibited. The
streets were well paved and kept clean. Residents
were not permitted to put garbage in front of the
houses, and refuse of all kinds was regularly collected
and carted away to the dumping grounds outside of
the city limits.
The development of Polish commerce in the
XVth century is said to have been greatly stimulated
by the excellent postal service enjoyed by the cities
during this period. In 1583 the postal monopoly was
farmed out by the king to Sebastian Montelupi, a rich
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES
117
merchant of Lemberg, who organized a remarkably
regular postal exchange with foreign countries. Dur-
ing his administration the larger cities received their
mail regularly every week, and the rates charged
were uniform and moderate, in accordance with a
schedule based on distance zones.
The causes of the decline of the Polish cities
The fall of Constantinople and the
causes
were numerous.
FIG. 60 AN ANCIENT SYNAGOGUE AT CRACOW
discovery of sea routes to the Orient have already
been mentioned. The heterogeneous character of the
population, which, in addition to economic differ-
ences, created class and racial -struggles within the
municipalities and made impossible harmony and
strength, was another important factor. This dis-
integration of municipal harmony was taken advan-
tage of by the powerful magnates and by the officers
of the Crown, who had jurisdiction over the Jews
118
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and over those parts of the community which were
not within the corporate limits, to extend their
powers and prerogatives.
With the disruption of the patriarchal relations
between the masters of the guilds .and the journey-
men and apprentices, .the cities witnessed many
strikes and riots. The municipal government became
demoralized and its competence gradually curtailed.
FIG. Gl THE OLD CITY HALL OF ZAMOSC
The artisans were too much concerned with their
trades and class struggles, and the merchants too
much absorbed in their commercial transactions, to
pay much attention to the political events that were
taking place in the country and to the concentration
of power in the hands of the nobles. Meanwhile,
pernicious legislation was being enacted, which cut
the arteries of city prosperity and development. The
very heterogeneity of the city populace, consisting of
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES
119
from one-eighth to one-fifth of Germans or of their na-
tionally undigested descendants, of a still larger pro-
portion of Jews, and an admixture of other foreign
FIG. 62 THE SEAL, OP THE
TOWN COUNCIL OF CRACOW IN
THE XIV CENTURY
FIG. 63 THE SEAL, OF THE
TOWN COURT OF CRACOW IN
THE XIV CENTURY
elements, such as Scotchmen, Frenchmen, Italians
and Armenians this heterogeneity was also respon-
sible for the indifference of the cities in the destinies
FIG. C4 THE SEAL OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF
LEMBERG IN THE XIV CENTURY
of the country and for the neglect to exercise the
right they possessed to representation in the national
diet.
120 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The law exempting nobles from paying export
duties when shipping their products abroad gave to
the landlords great advantages over the merchants.
FIG. 65 THE CITY HALL OF GDANSK (DANZIG)
Similarly injurious to commerce was the privilege
given to the nobles of importing foreign wares for
personal use, duty free. The merchant's usefulness
became thereby curtailed in a considerable degree.
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES
121
With a view of monopolizing" all the land of the coun-
try, the nobility secured the passage of a law in the
memorable year 1496 forbidding burghers to own
FIG. 66 CITY HALL, OF POSEN
land outside of the city limits. Thus the source of the
merchants' supply of large quantities of farm prod-
ucts for export was eliminated. Further legislation
of this sort, which went so far as to prohibit a burgher
from occupying an ecclesiastical office higher than
122
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
that of a canon, coupled with the keen foreign com-
petition the merchants had to encounter, interior city
disorders, jealousies and competition among the
cities, and perpetual and devastating wars, were addi-
tional causes for the rather precipitous decline of the
once flourishing Polish cities with their splendid
FIG. 67 VIEW OF ANCIENT CRACOW, PART I
From Georg Braun's "Civitates Orbis Terrarum," 1491
civilization. In the XVIIth century the cities had
already become but a shadow of their previous glory.
It was during the reign of John Olbracht that
the nobles secured extraordinary privileges and eco-
The Growth nomic advantages. Satisfied with their
of Political gains, they voted the necessary money
Power of the for the war planned by the king. Jointly
Nobility with his brother Wladyslav, King of
Hungary and Bohemia, John Olbracht organized a
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES
123
campaign against Turkey to reconquer the coast of
the Black Sea and to overawe the vacilating Hos-
podars of Moldavia. The campaign resulted in a com-
plete collapse of the plans of the king and the annihila-
tion of an army of 80,000 men. The defeated ruler
then proceeded to organize a crusade against Turkey
FIG. 68 VIEW OP ANCIENT CRACOW, PART II
From Georg Braun's "Civitates Orbis Terrarum," 1491
jointly with the German Emperor, the Hungarian
King and the Pope, but he died suddenly in the midst
of the preparations.
At the time of the king's death Lithuania was in
the throes of a war of her own with Muscovy. Nine
years of independence had convinced the Lithuanians
of their error in striving to sever the bonds uniting
them with Poland, and hence the news of the election
of Alexander, Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the throne
124
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of Poland, was received with great joy by them. The
pact uniting Lithuania with Poland was renewed.
Henceforth Lithuania and Poland were to form one
inseparable unit. The elections of the king were to
be held in common, all alliances and privileges were
to be made binding for the two countries, the money
was to be the same, and Polish kings were to become
automatically, upon their election, Grand Dukes of
FIG. 69 TIN BEAKERS AND CUPS OF THE CRACOW GUILDS
Lithuania. The separatist tendencies among the
Lithuanians came to an end with the death of John
Olbracht and the ascent of Alexander. The new king,
unlike his father and brother, was favorably inclined
toward the oligarchy. Upon his becoming Grand
Duke of Lithuania in 1492 he had granted a privilege
to the Lithuanian potentates by which all the activi-
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES
125
126
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
ties of the Grand Duke came under the control of the
Council of Magnates. Upon his coronation as King
of Poland in 1501 the Polish magnates obtained from
him a similar privilege. By this act the rather ex-
tensive powers of the king were in a large measure
obliterated, and his role was reduced to that of the
President of the Senate. This important grant is
known as the Mielnik privilege. By the provisions
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 71 ALEXANDER (1501-1506)
of this act the Senate could, in the name of the people,
refuse obedience to the king in instances of "tyran-
nical behavior" on his part. The nobility, disorgan-
ized through great losses in their ranks suffered in
the war with Turkey, was unable to resist the return
to power of the magnates, but tried to oppose them
by the employment of such means as the refusal to
pay taxes or to serve in the army. These circum-
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES 127
stances led to a state of almost complete disorgan-
ization in matters of internal administration, intensi-
fied by an economic crisis and the gathering black
clouds on the boundaries of the country. The Order
of the Cross ceased to pay homage to the king, the
Tartars and Wallachians were ravaging the southern
provinces of the country, and intervention in the war
carried on between Lithuania and Moscow grew
near. In view of the situation the king convoked the
Diet which met regularly every year, until order
was restored and conditions regulated. In order to
offset the extraordinary powers of the Senate the
nobility forced through, at the Diet held at Piotrkow
in 1504, a law called the "Incompatibilia," which
defined the powers and duties of the various crown
offices and specified which of these were "incom-
patible," i. e., which of them could not be held by the
same person at the same time.
The next year at the Diet which met at Radom,
a statute was passed known by its two initial words
as "IiliiLe^d/' This statute provided that nothing
new could be undertaken without the unanimous con-
sent of the three estates : the King, the Senate and
the representatives of the land assemblies of : the
nobility. This statute also provided that no noble-
man should engage in trade or commerce, under the
penalty of forfeiting his right to nobility. The nobil-
ity opposed the establishment of a regular army, fear-
ing that it might become a powerful weapon in the
hands of the king, but solemnly declared their duty
and readiness, as land owners, to defend the country
from foreign enemies. With few exceptions the rep-
resentatives of the cities were entirely eliminated
from the Diets.
Soon after the signing of the new statute Alex-
ander died, and his brother, Zygmunt I, the youngest
128 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 72 ZYGMUNT I (1506-1548)
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES 129
son of Kazimir Jagiellonczyk, was elected King of Po-
land and Lithuania. There was general feeling that
Prince Michael Glinski, w r ho was known to have plans
for establishing an independent kingdom of Ruthenia,
was responsible for the death of King Alexander,
and, fearing that dissensions might arise if a new
monarch were not elected at once, the Lithuanians
proclaimed Zygmunt as their sovereign even before
the Poles had a chance to express their preference.
Poland soon followed the wise course taken by the
Lithuanians and proclaimed Zygmunt King of
Poland. The reign of Zygmunt I (1506-1548) known
as the Old, because he was forty when he ascended
the throne, abounded in great events in internal as
well as external affairs. It was in his reign that the
nobility finally established itself as the dominant
factor in Polish life to the detriment of the cities and
peasantry, in spite of the king's leanings toward a
strong government by a selected group backed by a
well disciplined regular army and a responsible force
of administrative officials. In the first part of his
reign the king distinguished himself by his ability
and character. Many intricate problems were satis-
factorily solved, the exchequer was replenished,
jurisdiction regulated, a state mint established, and a
large number of the mortgaged crown estates re-
deemed. In the second part of his reign, as an elderly
man, he succumbed to the influences of his Italian
wife, Bona Sforza, a woman of low instincts, treacher-
ous and greedy, and ready to exploit her position in
order to increase her private fortune. No methods
were too mean to be employed in gaining her ends.
Through her pernicious influence corruption crept
into public life, high offices were given to incompe-
tent favorites and state revenues used to swell private
fortunes. A tide of indignation against corruption
130
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES 131
and the squandering of the royal domains swept
through the country, and an open revolt broke out
under the leadership of the powerful and impetuous
Peter Zborowski.
While important administrative reforms were
being introduced many other influences were at work
M . to make Zygmunt's reign memorable.
Humanism had made triumphant in-
roads into Polish thought despite the attempts of the
Cracow University to stem it, and laid the foundation
for the mighty swing by which the Protestant refor-
mation made its appearance in Poland. At that time
the complete fusion of Mazovia with Poland in 1529
took place after the extinction of the Piast Mazurian
dynasty. Previously Mazovia had been a vassal prin-
cipality with an autonomous government, completely
independent of the Polish government. The entrance
into Polish political life of the Mazurs, who at that
time were much inferior in education and economic
and political development to the rest of Poland, made
itself felt immediately because of their steadfast ad-
herence to the Church and ancient custom, and their
aversion to progressive tendencies. Only one year
after their entry into the Diet added burdens were
put upon the peasants, and henceforth serfdom be-
came more strongly entrenched.
At the same time that Mazovia, with its capital
of Warsaw, came into the fold of the Polish state,
,,. r -i. a precious Polish possession, that of
The Duchy , . ,
of East Prussia ^ russia, was, through the shortsight-
edness of the King and his Council,
drifting away from Poland. At the time when the
Reformation was making great headway in the north-
ern states of Germany, Albrecht Hohenzollern-An-
spach, Grand Master of the Order of the Cross, de-
132
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
cided to abandon the Roman Church, and, with the
consent of the Polish King, became the secular prince
of the vassal province of East Prussia. One of the
reasons which led the king to give his consent to
this recognition was the ferment the Reformation
was causing in West or Royal Prussia, and the riot-
ing at Danzig and elsewhere. He feared that a
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 74 THE DUKE OP PRUSSIA SWEARING ALLEGIANCE TO THE KING
OF POLAND AT CRACOW, 1526
refusal might lead Albrecht to bring the whole of
Prussia into an armed contest with the Crown. He
preferred to settle the matter amicably, and by the
Treaty of Cracow, Albrecht was recognized as
hereditary Prince of East or Ducal Prussia, under the
sovereignty of Poland, with a right to the first seat in
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES 133
the Polish Senate. After signing the treaty, Albrecht
paid public homage to the Polish King at the market
place of Cracow in 1525. The Pope and the German
Emperor protested, and it is only to be regretted that
instead of confiscating the territories of the Order
after its secularization, as he had a right to do, ac-
cording to the terms of the Treaty of Thorn, the Po-
lish King chose the other policy, which proved to be
one of the greatest blunders in Polish history. The
whole course of Polish, and perhaps of European his-
tory, would have been different had not Zygmunt
been bent upon this policy, which, in addition to the
reason given above, he was persuaded to follow be-
cause of the wars he was carrying on with Muscovy.
The second of these conflicts with that power ended
in 1522, and resulted in the loss of Smolensk, an im-
portant strategic point which, from that date until
1611, remained in Muscovy's hands. Further reason
for endeavoring to avert a possible Prussian rebel-
lion was the political anarchy in Hungary and the
fear of a war with Turkey, which constantly threat-
ened Poland.
The southern frontier of the country had also to
be guarded against the Tartars of Crimea who per-
TT1 . petually harassed Poland's borderlands.
Ukraine * J , , . 1-1
Many castles and tortresses were built
by Zygmunt to hold them back, among them being
the famous fortress of Bar. Of the Polish generals
who distinguished themselves in defence of the coun-
try during the reign of Zygmunt I, the name of Jan
Tarnowski stands out most prominently. It was he
who defeated Petryllo, the -Moldavian hospodar
whose expedition was undertaken at the promptings
of Muscovy. Tarnowski's victory over the Molda-
vians at Obertin in 1531 is one of the beacon lights in
the remarkable military annals of Poland. No single
134
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
victory, however, could put an end to the Moldavian
and Tartar raids which were a curse to the civilization
of that region, and rendered the proper development
of the fertile black soil of Ukraine almost impossible.
Flourishing settlements were annihilated over and
over again by fire and sword. This condition was
one of the causes that retarded thePolonization of the
FIG. 75 JAN TARNOWSKI, GRAND HETMAN OF THE CROWN.
Soldier and Statesman, Author of a Famous Military Work
"Consilium Rationis Bellicae."
native semi-civilized people. Another was the lack
of aggressiveness on the part of the Poles. In defer-
ence to the feelings of the native population, Roman
Catholic churches or Polish schools were seldom built
in these regions, and the descendants of Polish set-
tlers, finding no buttress in Polish institutions, often
lost their language and religion, accepting those of
the Ruthenians. Moreover, the constant fighting with
THE REPUBLIC OF NOBLES 135
the Tartar, Turkish and Moldavian raiders lowered
standards of civilization and developed a warlike,
self-reliant but impetuous and almost unmanageable
frontier race.
The exalted conception of political freedom and
the universal respect the Poles have always enter-
tained for the rights of other nationalities proved to
be a source of political weakness as exhibited in the
state polity with reference to Prussia and Ukraine.
In her political ideals Poland was a pioneer among
the nations and hard, indeed, is the lot of the pioneer
and leader! She, like France at a later period, bled
profusely that new and higher forms of life, which
she worked out in her experimental laboratory, might
replace the hoary moulds that had been hampering
the progress of mankind.
To enable the peaceful development of Ukraine
and Podolia a regular army was kept in a chain of
border towns and attempts were made to draft into
service the half-civilized refugees from everywhere,
but mostly from Ukraine, who formed a kind of
bandit republic around the cataracts of the lower
Dnieper. The citizens of that republic, known by the
Tartar name of Cossacks, lived by piracy and high-
way robbery. Polish generals were sometimes suc-
cessful in utilizing this republic of outlaws, robbers
and plunderers for staying Turkish and Tartar ex-
peditions.
The other neighbor who interfered with the
development of the frontier territories of Poland was
Muscovy which, since the times of Ivan III, exerted
constant pressure in her efforts to establish a foot-
hold in the west, encouraged by the German Emperor
and German princes, who disliked the growth of
Poland.
136 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Threatened on all sides, the country made every
effort to change its fiscal basis and to establish an
adequate system of taxation for pur-
poses of defence. Following the exam-
re- P^ e ^ otner countries of Europe, the
paredness King endeavored to form a regular
army. When plans miscarried, he
proposed another measure, whereby the country
was to be subdivided into five sections, each section
contributing its knighthood once in five years for a
year's service at the frontiers of the country. Those
who wished to be excused from -service could do so
on the payment of a stipulated tax. The excellent
measure was passed by the Diet, but was rendered
practically inoperative by the impossibility of agree-
ment as to the methods of property appraisals and
the preservation of registers and tax lists. The great
reforms planned by the King arid his Chancellor,
John Laski, the Archbishop of Gnesen, and supported
by a great body of patriots, fell through because of
the shortsightedness and stinginess of a small group
of obstructionists.
What is true of democracies even now applies
in a greater measure to Poland of that period. The
large mass of the citizenry was preoccupied with
their daily tasks and duties and could not devote
much time and thought to the affairs of government.
The Polish nobility never shirked their duties in the
defense of the country but it was impossible for them
to keep in close touch with government matters, par-
ticularly in those days when the means of transmis-
sion of intelligence were meagre and undeveloped.
This laissez faire attitude gave opportunity to the
selfish and unscrupulous elements to defeat the
purposes of legislation and reforms and to use them
for the benefit of their individual interests.
FIG. 76 GENERAL VIEW OF BIECZ.
From Georg Braun's "Civitates Orbis Terrarum," 1491
CHAPTER VIII.
The Protestant Reformation and the Golden Age in'
Poland
The efforts of Zygmunt the Old and of the patri-
ots to change the fiscal system of the country, and to
introduce satisfactory administrative
TTTlA "PrA
" A . and military reforms, were considerably
cursors of the , , J . . , *
Reformation retarted by the progress of the rrotes-
tant Reformation which, at that time,
absorbed the attention of the country and occupied
the minds of the people to the exclusion of all other
matters. Luther's "heresy" was immediately and
sympathetically echoed in Poland after its promulga-
tion in Germany. The ground was well prepared for
it. Religious, political and economic conditions simi--
lar to those which made it popular in the German
states existed in Poland. The Polish clergy led as
dissolute a life as did the clergy elsewhere/in Europe.
The indignation of the nobles at the freedom the
clergy enjoyed from taxation and other burdens was
intense. Strong was also their opposition to the
church tithes as well as their resentment at Papal
interference in matters of state. The renowned writer
of the time of Kazimir Jagiellonczyk, Jan Ostrorog,
in his dissertation, "Monumentum pro reipublicae
ordinatione congestum," expressed the prevailing
138 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
opinion when he wrote in 1473: "The Polish King
recognized nobody's supremacy save that of God;
instead of assuring the new Pope of his obedi-
ence he will sufficiently fulfill his duty if he congra-
tulate him, and at the same time remind him that he
should rule the Church justly. It is below the dignity
of the king to write to the Pope with humility and
humbleness. . . . The clergy are obliged to help the
state; one should not be indignant when the king
orders the melting of church utensils for public needs.
All payments for the benefit of the Pope should be
abolished. Poland needs all the funds she can spare
for the war with invaders and for the preservation of
internal order. The proclamation of jubilee Papal
bulls as well as fees for funerals, marriages, etc.,
should be prohibited. The king should nominate the
bishops. In order to decrease the large body of fait-
neants, the number of cloisters should be restricted,
the admission of foreigners to them prohibited, and
sermons in the German language restricted." Such
were the predominant sentiments of the time, in true
keeping with the teachings of Humanism, which
spread in Poland through constant contact with Ger-
many and Italy, in the principles of which several
generations preceding the Reformation had been
reared, and in accordance with which they shaped
their views and opinions. The memory of the Huss
movement had not completely died out in Poland, and
the similarity of Luther's teachings with Hussitism
made them popular. Moreover, the political demands
of the nobility, striving for complete emancipation
from ecclesiastical jurisdiction and for the establish-
ment of a national Church, with the king or a synod at
the head, formed a fertile soil for the reception of the
Reformation, the seeds of which took firm root in all
parts of Poland with the exception of Mazovia.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 139
That Poland was not free from "heretics" at all
times since the XlVth century can be inferred from
the fact that as early as 1326 the famous Pope John
XXII "was compelled" to appoint a special inquisitor
for Poland in the person of Peter of Kolomea, a
Dominican. There is, however, no documentary evi-
dence of any work of the inquisitors in Poland.
The Lutheran movement began in Prussia and
in the larger Polish cities, such as Cracow, where the
German element was considerable. One
The of the first and most ardent representa-
Growth of the , r T .LI n i j T
Reformation tlves of Luther in Poland was Jan
Movement Seklucyan. But Lutheranism was not
as popular as Calvinism, for the reason
that the latter was considered more appropriate for
a free republic, and was more pleasing because of its
recognition of laymen in church councils. In addi-
tion to these two schools a great variety of other
teachings found ready followers in Poland. Hun-
dreds of reformers, fleeing persecution in their own
countries, came to Poland, where they were accorded
complete freedom of action and speech. The Queen's
confessor, Francis Lismanin, an Italian, was one of
the most active workers in the court circles. Two
other Italians, Francis Stankar and Lelius Socino,
and a Pole, Peter of Goniondz, preached against the
Trinity and organized a sect known under different
names: Socinians, Arians or Antitrinitarians. The
various sects found their patrons among the powerful -
magnates. The relatives of the once famous Bishop
and Cardinal Olesnicki became the followers of
Zwingli, and the Radziwills of Lithuania adopted
Calvinism, as did most of the magnates and nobles
of Little Poland. In Ruthenia, under the leadership
of the magnate Stadnicki, the Antitrinitarians became
supreme. Ancient Hussitism revived, and under the
140 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
name of the Bohemian Brotherhood conquered al-
most the whole of Great Poland. There were also
many independent Polish reformers. The Primate's
nephew, the younger John Laski, achieved consider-
able renown not only in Poland, but in Germany,
Denmark and even in far-distant England. Here he
enjoyed the protection of King Edward VI, and be-
came an intimate friend of Primate Cranmer, in
whose house he lived while in England.*
FIG. 77 JAN LASKI, RELIGIOUS REFORMER
With the growth of the movement the income
and the power of the established Church diminished.
Royal edicts against the heretics were not enforced
and Church anathemas were disregarded. Priests
* A great deal of very interesting information about the Reforma-
tion in Poland is to be found in the two volumes of Count Valerian
Krasinski's "Sketch of the Rise, Progress and Decline of the Reforma-
tion in Poland," published in London, 1838-1840.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 141
who married were shielded by the nobles. Tithes
were uncollectable and decrees of ecclesiastical courts
unheeded. Animosity and spitefulness went so far
that because he wore his cap during the mass pre-
ceding the session of the Diet of 1552, Deputy Rafal
Leszczynski was chosen president of the chamber.
No discussion on any matter was allowed at this re-
markable Diet until the Church agreed to suspend its
right to civil jurisdiction. The bishops for a time
remained obstinate, but finally were compelled to
pledge the suspension of church trials over the nobles
as well as over their peasants until the matter be
settled with the Pope by a special delegation sent to
Rome. Some of the deputies went so far as to de-
mand the exclusion of the bishops from the Senate,
the confiscation of all church estates for the purpose
of national defense, the abolition of the celibacy of
the clergy, and like measures. Laws were passed
forbidding the execution of Church decrees by the
government and the collection of St. Peter's pence.
The non-conformists were not, however, able to ob-
tain equal rights with the Catholic clergy in teaching
religious doctrines, but received equal rights in filling
crown offices.
The Reformation spread like wildfire among the
upper classes and in the cities. Many churches were
converted into Protestant places of worship, images
burnt, many priests of high and low rank abandoned
the Church, and young ladies of the best families did
not hesitate to marry priest-apostates. The life of
the nobles and the city patriciate was thoroughly re-
volutionized. When the Papal legate, Alois Lippo-
mano, appeared at the Diet of Warsaw in 1556, he
was hailed with the cry : "Ecce progenies viperarum."
142 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The masses of the peasantry and of the city
plebs, however, remained almost untouched by the
new religious currents, and stubbornly
The Unpopu- resisted all attempts to convert them to
j nty the new order of things. This was the
Among cause of the ultimate collapse of the
the Lower movement which, however, 'by the stimu-
Classes lation it gave to independent thought
and by the utilization of the Polish
tongue instead of the mediaeval Latin for purposes of
propaganda, created the Golden Age in Polish life
and literature.
The Gospels and the Bible were translated into
Polish, and a large number of pamphlets and discus-
sions intended for the great mass of the
The Cultural p eO ple to whom no other, except their
Effects of the . L . ' . ., V
Reformation native language, was intelligible, was
printed in Polish. By that time even
the burghers began to consider Polish as their native
tongue, and although a considerable minority still
continued to use German, yet in 1536 the City Council
of Cracow proclaimed Polish as the language to be
used in prayers and sermons in the churches of that
town. The German and Latin books began to be
supplanted by Polish prints.
The art of printing found a very early applica-
tion in Poland. In 1465, only a few years after the
invention of the art, a German printer was invited to
Cracow by the University. He printed two books:
"Joannis de Turrecremata Cardinalis S. Sixti vulga-
riter nuncupati. Explanatio in Psalterium finit
Cracis" and "Omnes libri Beati Augustini Aurelii."
The earliest book containing a text in the Polish
language was printed in Breslau in 1475 and is at the
present time in the possession of the British Museum.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
143
The first Slavic books were published at Cracow.
Owing to the freedom and tolerance existing in Po-
land at the time and to the interest taken in scientific
matters, the Polish capital became the center of cul-
tural activity for a large area, comprising the Eastern
and South Eastern nations of Europe. The earliest
books for Hungary, Moldavia, Transylvania, Ruthe-
nia and Lithuania were printed at Cracow. In 1490
a book store was opened in that city and a few years
Statue <lencbos
Uriltortlis.
FIG. 78 TITLE PAGE OF
CRACOW PRINT OF THE
BEGINNING OF THE
XVI CENTURY
FIG. 79 TITLE PAGE OF A
CRACOW PRINT OF 1512
later a permanent press was established. The jarge
printing activity contributed to the spread of the"
doctrines of Humanism and of the Reformation and
incidentally to the development of Polish literature.
The Cracow University was hostile both to the
new religious tenets and to the profanation of science
and literature by the employment of anything but the
Latin language. It clung to its medieval concep-
144
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 145
tions but maintained a high order of scholarship in
science and mathematics. At its request a globe was
made in 1510 which is the first known globe to men-
tion the name of America. The wrong placing of the
new name serves but to emphasize the ancient origin
of this remarkable Polish relic which preceded by five
years the celebrated Frankfurt-Weimar orb of
Schoner. The Globus Jagellonicus was first described
by Prof. Thaddeus Estreicher in 1900 in the Transac-
tions of the Cracow Academy of Sciences for that year.
There he points out that the Polish globe is the earliest
globe of the after Columbus era, that it is the earliest
to indicate any part of the New World and the first to
delineate the South American continent. It is also
the first globe on which the continent of America is
shown to be distinct from that of Asia. The fact that
the University of Cracow possessed in 1510 or there-
abouts a globe indicating the latest geographical dis-
coveries throws indirect light on the keen interest
taken by the Polish scholars of the time in the pro-
gress of science.
In this connection it may also be worth while to
mention that it was the Cracow edition of Ptolemy,
prepared in 1512 by Jan of Stobnica, a professor of
the Jagiellon University, which first contained a map
of North and South America, showing the connection
of the two continents by an isthmus. .
Eager as the University evidently was to keep
abreast with the latest discoveries in science and
geography, it was equally determined in its opposi-
tion to the new currents in philosophy and. theology.
No Humanists were tolerated on the faculty, and
as a consequence the University lost in time its best
professors and most of its students. The nobility and
the burgesses sent their boys abroad, to Erfurt, to
Padua, Venice, Pavia, Paris and elsewhere. The
146 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
young men returned full of enthusiasm and new ideas
about life, government and religion. A host of
talented writers appeared. Some discussed matters
of state freely and criticised the existing conditions,
pointing out, as did the highly gifted Andrew Frycz
Modrzewski, the necessity of equalization of all the
estates before the law, and the advantages of a pros-
perous and free peasantry. Others, like Orzechowski,
thundered against the despotism of the nobility, the
iniquities and the foreign character of the Church
FIG. 81 SIMON SZYMONOWICZ FIG. 82 SEBASTIAN KLONOWICZ
(1558-1629) (1550-1602)
and the great privileges of the Jews in matters of
money lending and usury. A large number of his-
torians, poets, dramatists and fiction writers sprang
up among all classes of society. Klemens Janicki, the
poet-leureate, was a peasant; Simon Szymonowicz,
the author of beautiful bucolics, was of city birth; so
were other distinguished writers, like Sebastian
Klonowicz and the brothers Zimorowicz. Nicholas
Rey, the greatest satirist of the time, was born in a
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
147
noble family, but of modest circumstances. Polish
literature really had its beginning with Rey. His
pictures of life, men and conditions are masterpieces
of style, wit and perspicuity. They served as models
to many future writers.
FIG. 83 NICHOLAS REY (1505-1569), THE FOUNDER OF POLISH NATIONAL
LITERATURE AND AN ARDENT ADVOCATE OF
CALVINISM IN 'POLAND
At this time Polish national consciousness
reached its fullest realization in art as well as in
science. Copernicus (1473-1543), one of the most
revolutionary minds the world has known, who by
his epoch-making researches freed science forever
148 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
from the shackles of theology, like all truly great
men, was far from narrow specialization. That he
published a remarkable work on money is well known
to economic historians. But the treatise he wrote in
support of his country's claims to the territories that
FIG. 84 NICHOLAS COPERNICUS
had been illegally occupied by the Order of the Cross
is less generally known and it is precisely this patri-
otic trait in Copernicus which, aside from the ever-
lasting glory he brought to Poland's name, has en-
deared him forever in the heart of his nation.
149
Just as Polish science of the XVIth century
was crowned by the immortal works of Coper-
nicus, so was the Polish Parnassus of that age
glorified by the writings of John Kochanowski (1530-
1584), the nobleman of Sandomir. Until this day
his poems and dramas delight the most fastidious
taste by their beauty, deep thought and fine senti-
FIG. 85 JOHN KOCHANOWSKI (1530-1584), THE FIRST GREAT
NATIONAL, POET OF POLAND
ment. The stimulus given to writing in Polish sup-
plied by the religious reformers gained momentum
as time advanced, and as early as 1548, at the funeral
of King Zygmunt the Old, the Bishop of Cracow, for
the first time in history, used Polish at so solemn an
occasion. King Zygmunt August and his sisters
150 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
spoke the most elegant Polish. Martin Bielski wrote
a history of Poland in Polish. Latin was being sup-
planted, but of course not completely. It was still the
medium of expression of the philosophical and scien-
tific minds of Poland, who were plentiful in that glori-
ous period. Joseph Strus, the king's physician, was
widely known in Europe by his writings. His work
on "The Pulse," published in Posen, created a great
stir in the medical world of the time. James Przyluski
published a monumental and masterful codification
of the laws of Poland, with commentaries. Simon
Marcius Czystochlebski wrote a work concerning
pedagogical problems, and Martin Kromer became
the worthy successor of John Dlugosz, the famous
Polish historian of the time of Kazimir Jagiellonczyk.
A high type of culture evolved. Freed from the
shackles of feudalism and scholasticism, enriched by
the toil of a serf-peasantry, the Poles of the upper
classes, with their exuberant nature and impression-
able minds, created in the XVIth century a distinct
and high civilization of their own, akin in many ways
to that of the Latin and the Teuton worlds, yet dif-
ferent from both of these by virtue of a different
racial, geographic and social environment.
The Reformation in Poland was doomed to fail-
ure because the large mass of the peasantry was in-
imical to the reforms, as were the poorer
TheProtes- i< , ,., ,.,v \
tant Sects nobles who in mentality differed very
little from the peasants. Another cause
for the ultimate failure of the movement was the
weakness of the Protestant element caused by their
differentiation into a number of denominations com-
batting each other. The Protestant leaders, realizing
the dangers of a divided front, bent every effort
toward uniting the various factions into one large
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 151
body, and to working jointly for the establishment of
a national church, similar to the Church of England.
They finally succeeded, in 1570, in uniting the less
radical wings. This union was known as the Concord
of Sandomir. The Anti-Trinitarians did not join in it.
While the non-Conformists were quarreling, the
Roman Church, after the Council of Trent, picked up
its old self-confidence and courage and launched a
vigorous counter-movement under the leadership of
Hosius, Bishop of Warmia, and the Papal Nuncio,
John Francis Commendoni. It was chiefly due to the
indefatigable energy of these two men that the
crumbling edifice of the Roman Church in Poland
was saved from destruction.
In the meantime the nobility was bringing strong
pressure to bear upon the new king, demanding the
limitation of the rights of the clergy.
Collapse . Submitting to it, Zygmunt II August
f li? proclaimed, in 1562, the Statute of Tol-
to Establish , ' , Ti 1
a National erance, which, among other things, de-
Church prived the ecclesiastical courts of the
power to enforce their decrees. This
step led the Pope to enter into negotiations with
Ivan the Terrible, the great enemy of Poland, where-
by Ivan was to use his military power to punish the
Polish nation for its tolerance of heretics. Indigna-
tion rose high, and a break seemed to be imminent
after the Papal Nuncio refused to grant the king a
divorce from his third wife, Catherine Hapsburg.
Preparations were being made for the convocation of
a religious council, for which the reformers were
busily preparing, and to which they invited Calvin.
The Pope protested against the holding of this coun-
cil, and the king, ill and hesitating, fearing a break
with the Pope, vetoed the proposal establishing an in-
dependent Church of Poland. In the same year, 1565,
152 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the first Jesuits brought over by Bishop Hosius ap-
peared in Poland, and an era of feverish activity
against the heresy began. The established Church
was able to rally the great masses and at the local
elections to force through representatives favoring
the Church. As their numbers increased in the Diet
they were able, aided faithfully by the Mazurs, to
stem the progress of the plans for "the improvement
of the Republic" championed by the "Dissidents," the
name by which the non-Conformists were known in
Poland.
FIG. 86 VIEW OF KROSNO. From G. Braun's "Civitates orbis terrarum," 1491
CHAPTER IX.
1548-1572.
The End of the Jagiellon Dynasty and the Beginning
of the Era of Popular Election
of Kings
Eighteen years before the death of Zygmunt the
Old, the Diet consented to recognize his son by the
second marriage as successor to the
throne, with the understanding, how-
ever, that henceforth elections of the
king would not be restricted to the Diet
but would be "viritim," i. e., open to the whole body
of citizen-nobles.
In 1548 Zygmunt II August became King of
Poland. No sooner did his coronation take place than
he came into a serious encounter with the Diet on
account of his marriage with Barbara Radziwill,
which, when heir to the throne, he had contracted
without the knowledge and consent of the Senate.
It was in violation of the constitution and his divorce
was demanded. The king, who loved his wife ten-
derly, refused to submit to the demand of the mag-
nates whose personal jealousies inflamed by the
machinations of Bona, the Queen Dowager, and her
camarilla, were the chief motives for the humiliation
of the king and his wife. A deadlock, lasting 1 two
years, ensued. The opposition finally surrendered
154
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and Barbara was crowned queen in 1550. In his
fight against the Senate the new king had exhibited
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 87 ZYGMUNT II AUGUST (1548-1572)
a great determination and strength of character,
THE END OF JAGIELLON DYNASTY 155
attributes which unfortunately were not his in sub-
sequent dealings. He failed in leadership in matters
FIG. 88 QUEEN BARBARA RADZIWILL,
which were then shaking the body politic to its foun-
156 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
dation. His devious course with reference to the
Reformation has been traced in the last chapter. The
example of Henry VIII of England and the separa-
tion of the Church in the Scandinavian countries
fired the imagination of the Protestant leaders in
Poland, who were persistently clamoring for an in-
dependent Church and demanding action on the part
of the king. Time-honored tradition and reasons of
state prompted caution. The undecided king, the
centre of conflicting currents, discouraged by the
lack of unity in the Protestant camp and influenced by
the strong representations of Pope Paul IV, dodged
the issue, deferring its consideration from Diet to
Diet, not strong enough to face it squarely and to
throw its lot with one side or the other.
Zygmunt II August similarly evaded the re-
quests of the nobles for administrative reforms. It
was only in 1562 that the king con-
sen ted to the consideration of the pro-
Crown Lands gram for the "Betterment of the Repub-
lic." As on a previous occasion the
Deputies, so now the Senators, in their patriotic en-
thusiasm expressed themselves ready to give up the
charters or "the donation lists," as they were called,
granted to them by former monarchs and which en-
titled them to large estates in the royal domains.
The Jagiellons had found it necessary, in the
course of events, to distribute their large domains
among the lords as well as among the minor nobles
to secure the necessary support for their foreign and
domestic policies. By this time the royal domain had
become very insignificant and as a consequence the
state treasury, which depended almost exclusively
upon the proceeds from those domains, was almost
THE END OF JAGIELLON DYNASTY 157
depleted. At the memorable session of the Diet of
1562 a law was passed whereby all land grants issued
after the year 1504 were declared void and lands or-
dered to revert to the Crown. Three-fourths of the
revenues from the returned domain were to be used
for the maintenance of the king and of all the Crown
offices and officials, and one-fourth was to be devoted
to the maintenance of a regular army for the defense
of the country. The measure was of great political
and administrative value. Henceforth no grants of
Crown domains could be made; the king could, how-
ever, bestow the life use of some of them as "panis
bene merentium" upon those who distinguished them-
selves by faithful service. Unfortunately, this soon
became a source of corruption.
The Diet of 1562, which met for putting through
measures for bettering the status of the Republic,
enacted most pernicious legislation re-
* garding the economic life of the coun-
tr ^' ^ abolished all restrictions on the
Legislation free export of raw products and the free
import of manufactured goods, and
prohibited free export of domestic manufactures.
The blighting effects this measure had upon industry
were soon visible. The agrarian nobles profited by
the lucrative exchange of their produce for the manu-
factured articles of foreign countries, but the Polish
cities, already impoverished and not only deprived of
protection afforded by a tariff but prohibited from
exporting abroad, rapidly declined and faded into
"rotten boroughs." The last possibility of the Polish
King ever attempting to join with the cities against
the nobles was thus removed. It was also in the time
of Zygmunt II August that the struggle with Mus-
covy, which since that time has practically never
158 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
ceased, took on very serious aspects. Averse to war,
the Polish King still was drawn into it by the dis-
quieting aggressiveness of Ivan the Terrible, the first
Czar of Muscovy, who endeavored to "break a win-
dow" into the Baltic. The Poles were quick to see
the danger coming from the east. Zygmunt August,
appraising the situation correctly, saw in Muscovy
the most formidable foe of the Polish state. The
Polish ambassador at Rome informed the king that
Ivan's agents were busy forming a coalition against
Poland with the Pope at the head. The Pope,
desirous of curbing the Reformation in Poland,
welcomed Ivan's plans, designed to punish the
heretics. To offset Ivan's plans the king took steps
to assure himself of the friendship of the Hapsburgs
and consented to marry Catherine, the daughter of
Ferdinand I and sister of his first wife, two years
after the death of the beloved Barbara Radziwill, his
second wife.
War with Muscovy came as a result of the claims
of sovereignty of the Knights of the Sword over the
Archbishop of Riga. The Knights of
the Sword, amalgamated since 1237
TMriWe" with t ^ ie Knights of the Cross, were the
1562-1571 masters of that strip of the Baltic littoral
which comprised Courland, Esthonia
and Livonia, the last being known in Poland by the
name of Inflanty. Ivan decided to exploit the feud.
He sent an army against the Knights and took a few
cities. The Grand Master of the Order, receiving no
support from the German Emperor, resigned and
Gothard von Kettler took his place. The Swedish
King, joining Ivan, overrode Esthonia, and the
Danish fleet occupied the seacoast of Courland and
the Island of Osel. The Letts revolted against their
Teutonic oppressors. Kettler and the Bishop of
THE END OF JAGIELLON DYNASTY 159
Riga, seeing that they would be unable to defend
the country, turned to Poland for help and offered
Livonia to the Polish crown. Kettler, following the
example of the last Grand Master of the Order of the
Cross, threw off his religious vows and became a
secular prince of Courland and a vassal of Poland.
After the extinction of his house, Courland was to
become an integral part of Poland.
Meanwhile, Livonia came under Polish sover-
eignty with a wide local autonomy. The accession of
that province was very valuable. It
The Acquisi- g ave p o i an( j the estuary of the Dvina,
orTvoni? 11 ^ With the Cit y f Ri & a and Other C0n -
i56i venient ports on the Baltic.
Sweden and Denmark, content with
their large acquisitions, soon entered into peace
negotations with Poland. Ivan, however, seeing
in Poland's aggrandizement a blow to his ambition,
resorted to arms and the war begun by him lasted
a whole decade. The King of Poland protested
to Queen Elizabeth of England against the illicit
trade in arms which the English sailors were carry-
ing on and threatened with death penalty those
of them who might be caught indulging in it. In
this document Poland sounded the following remark-
able note of warning: "The Muscovite, who is not
only our opponent of to-day but the eternal enemy of
all free nations, should not be allowed to supply him-
self with cannons, bullets and munitions or with
artisans who manufacture arms hitherto unknown to
those barbarians." * In 1571 peace was finally con-
cluded, according to the terms of which a part of
Livonia and the Lithuanian city of Polotsk went to
Muscovy.
* Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace "Russia," Encyclopedia Brit-
tanica, 1911, Vol. XXIII, p. 896.
160 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
While the war with Ivan was going on the ruling
family of East Prussia became extinct and the coun-
try was, according to the treaty of 1525,
The Heredi- to revert to the Polish crown. Owing,
tary Umon however, to the engagement with Mus-
of East Prussia ' , ... * -,11, vu
with Bran- covy and the still unsettled terms with
denburg, 1563. the Scandinavian countries, Joachim
Hohenzollern, the Elector of Branden-
burg, was able to prevail upon Poland to allow him to
establish himself permanently in East Prussia and
thus to unite it with Brandenburg by a dynastic
union. Polish diplomacy failed to recognize the
grave danger of this expansion of Brandenburg.
Every effort was then strained to stay the Muscovite
menace and to establish a closer union with Lithu-
ania and Ruthenia for more effective defense against
the Muscovite aggression, the far-reaching conse-
quences of which were not then fully discernible to
west European diplomacy despite the Polish warning.
The need of a closer union was the more urgent
because the king was childless, and upon his death a
strife was certain to ensue. The Tagiel-
The Union of t, 1 u T vt.
Lublin 1569 * ons nac * hereditary rights in Lithuania
and Ruthenia, but none in Poland. The
two countries had separate parliaments, armies, money
and institutions. The laws of the two countries also
were not exactly the same; different also were the
systems of taxation and of land tenure. The need of
a more unified and homogeneous organization was
frequently pointed out by the Polish statesmen and
was favored by the nobles of Lithuania and Ruthenia,
as it would give them the enjoyment of greater privi-
leges and possibilities and opportunities for a broader
social and economic development. The two countries
had a similar economic basis and one and the same
THE -END OF JAGIELLON DYNASTY 161
system of water routes. Moreover, Polish coloni-
zation at the time reached the Dnieper, and the
Polish, Lithuanian and Ruthenian families became
considerably interrelated by marriage and lost their
separatist race consciousness. The Polish language
had become the common property of the nobles of the
three nations. The opposition was limited almost
exclusively to the magnates, who were loath to lose
the great prerogatives they enjoyed under the less
democratic laws of Lithuania. Throughout Polish
history, until this very day, this element of large
landowners of Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia has
consistently opposed all reforms which aim at the
democratization of the country. They would rather
see the country disrupted than see it democratic.
At the time of Zygmunt II August the body
politic was still healthy enough to curb the anarchy
of the magnates and when the Lithuanian and
Ruthenian lords, after repeated attempts and persua-
sions on the part of the king and the patriots, which
continued for several years, remained obstinate and
left the convention, the king, amidst great enthusiasm,
most solemnly declared the union accomplished "in
contumacium." This took place in 1569 in the City
of Lublin, and hence the union is known by the name
of that ancient and historic town. It was a great
political achievement and was characterized as the
union of "the free with the free, and of the equal with
the equal." It established equal rights and equal
duties for all nationalities throughout the whole of
the vast domains of the Republic stretching from the
Baltic to the Black Sea, and from the Oder to the
Dnieper. In order to place the two countries on a
constitutional equality, the king abdicated his heredi-
tary rights in Lithuania, an act which was in pathetic
contrast to his recognition of the Hohenzollerns to
162
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
THE END OF JAGIELLON DYNASTY 163
hereditary rights in East Prussia. Henceforth Po-
land, known as Korona or the Crown, and Lithuania
formed one inseparable body with one king "who is
not born to office," but elected by the citizens of the
two countries jointly, and with one Diet to which the
representatives of all the lands of the Republic were
elected on the same basis. The currency was made
common for the two countries, and the laws of settle-
ment and of land tenure identical. Volhynia, the
province of Kieff, and Podlasie (the country watered
by the Narew and the Bug) became integral parts of
FIG. 00 THE MOUND ERECTED AT LEMBERG TO COMMEMORATE
THE UNION OF LUBLIN.
Poland, as did West Prussia. The City of Danzig in
West Prussia received subsequently a special constitu-
tion. Ruthenia, with the exception of the three
provinces above mentioned, became an integral part
of Lithuania. Livonia belonged to both Poland and
Lithuania, and the Moldavian Hospodar remained a
vassal of the Polish King. Lithuania was to have sepa-
rate courts, a separate treasury and a separate army.
The Diets were henceforth common and held at War-
saw, whither the king's residence was moved after the
next election.
The union of Lublin was a work of compromise
and far from perfection. It established, however, a
common basis of law and government and served to
solidify the two countries very substantially.
164 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Three years after the establishment of the union,
Zygmunt II August died, and the distinguished
royal family of the Jagiellons came to
The Death of an enc j a f ter a re ig n o f almost tWO CCn-
jagieiion, 1572 tures, 1386-1572. In the span of that
reign Poland grew from a relatively
unimportant principality into one of the greatest
powers of Europe.
Immediately after the death of the last Jagiellon
arose the important question, for which no provision
existed in the constitution, regarding
The Interrex t ' ,
the status of the government during
interregnum. All the state officers, administrative
and judicial, acting in the name of the king, were de-
prived of the legal basis of their activities. Someone
had to take the king's place until the election. Two
men laid claims to the office of the interrex: the
Archbishop of Gniezno and the President of the Diet.
The contest was, in a way, a clash of the Catholic
Church with the Reformers, as Firley, the President
of the Diet, was a follower of Calvin. The jealousy
of some of the other magnates prevented Firley's
election. Archbishop Uchanski was declared to be
the representative of the nation during the inter-
regnum. This election established a precedent, and
henceforth the Primate was the interrex pending the
election of a new king.
It is to the credit of the patriotism and civic
maturity of the nobles that the life of the country
went on undisturbed during this period.
The Cowl A . , , L T j
Confederate As m tne interregnum following Lud-
wig's death, 1382-1384, the local con-
federacies of the nobles formed in various provinces
carried on the administrative local work, set up
temporary courts and executives, and admirably
preserved order and peace. Like the interrex, the
THE END OF JAGIELLON DYNASTY
165
confederacies, known as those of the cowl from the
cowl worn as a sign of mourning, became recognized
constitutional institutions during interregnum. The
device which was of value as a spontaneous measure
166 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
proved to be a clumsy and unwieldy one when made
a regular instrument of government. Another pre-
cedent was established during the first interregnum,
and that was the "convocation" session of the Diet,
which always took place before the election of the
king. The convocation Diet was held in Warsaw
in January, 1573. At this Diet the methods to be fol-
lowed at the elections were adopted.
The non-Conformists tried to undo the law
passed in Zygmunt I's reign, establishing the so-
called "viritim" or direct elections, pro-
posing an indirect method by a body of
Elections r , . - /
chosen electors four times larger than
the number of representatives in the Diet. The Cath-
olics, whose power lay with the rank and file of the
nobility, objected to the indirect methods as an
usurpation of the "golden liberties" of the citizenry,
and defeated the amendment in favor of the primitive
methods suitable for a small town moot.
The place designated for the election was a field
at the outskirts of the city of Warsaw. The choice of
a city in the heart of Mazovia favored the Catholic
Church, as, on account of the proximity of the city, the
Mazurs could come in great numbers and sway the
election.
Seeing that they were in a minority, the non-Con-
formists or Dissidents, formed a closer association
known as the Warsaw confederacy, in
The Warsaw which they pledged themselves to see to
Confederacy it that law and order were preserved
of Rdigio^T 6 and that complete freedom of con-
Tolerance, science be guaranteed. This act of the
1573 confederacy, demanding freedom of
religious belief, was submitted to the
Convocation Diet and overwhelmingly carried, only
the bishops voting against it. The act of the Warsaw
THE END OF JAGIELLON DYNASTY
167
Confederacy became the legal basis of the position of
the non-Conformists in the future and one of the chief
organic statutes of the Republic.
The election was held in April, 1573, and over
forty thousand voters assembled. There were many
candidates: Henri Valois, the brother
The Election f th French King Charles IX; Arch-
of Henri ^ TT
Valois, 1573 duke brnest Hapsburg, the younger
son of Emperor Maximilian II; Tsar
Ivan the Terrible; King John of Sweden; Prince Ste-
(J. Mateykol
FIG. 91 HENRI VAL.OIS, 1573-1574
fan Batory of Transylvania, and some Polish candi-
dates. The French candidate carried the election,
supported by the Church and by many among the
non-Conformists, who were in his favor, provided he
pledge the support of the articles of their confedera-
168 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tion guaranteeing freedom of faith. The pacta con-
venta, or the covenant which the elected king had
to sign, specified a great many conditions to be ful-
filled, among them, the building of a navy on the Bal-
tic. He had also to swear to respect the liberties and
privileges of the nobles.
The new king, reared in an entirely different
political atmosphere, did not consider himself bound
by the provisions of the covenant and
" 8 ? almost immediately aroused serious
in 1574 . . i i i i i 11
opposition by his highhanded methods.
He was in Poland only five months when the news of
his brother's death reached him, and very soon after-
ward the country was apprised that their monarch
had fled to become King Henry III of France.
His behavior was shocking and humiliating to the
nation, whose cultural attainments at the time were
at least equal, if not superior, to those of France.
Morfill, in his book on Poland, gives a description of
the Polish delegation sent to France to inform Henri
Valois of his election, which throws an interesting
light upon the educational accomplishments of the
Poles at that period. He says: "On conversing with
the Poles, the French were struck with their facility
in speaking Latin, French, German and Italian. Some
of them even spoke the French language with such
facility that, according to a contemporary writer,
they might have been taken for inhabitants of the
banks of the Seine or the Loire, rather than men born
in countries watered by the Vistula and Dnieper. The
nobility of the Court of Charles IX were obliged to
blush at their own ignorance, for there were only two,
the Baron de Millan and the Marquis de Castlellau
Mauvissiere, who could answer them in Latin, and
they had been expressly sent to maintain the honor
of their order. The other nobles, when the new-
THE END OF JAGIELLON DYNASTY 169
comers spoke to them in that language, could only
reply by signs or stammering." *
The experience with the universal direct elec-
tions and with foreign kings should have been taken
for a bad omen, and the pre-election in-
Royal Elec- trigues for an indication of how de-
tions Afforded structive the policy would eventually be
for P For U efn y ' f r Poland b Und as she was On a11
Monarchjf" sides by strong monarchies whose sov-
to Meddle in ereigns sought the Polish crown for
Polish internal selfish and dynastic advantages. TUe
Affairs elections opened a way for foreign ene-
mies to take active part in Polish poli-
tics, and by intrigues and corruption to disorganize,
demoralize and weaken the country. An enlightened
body of patriots saw the dangers and tried to prevent
them, but were defeated by the self-seeking magnates
and the Church. A period of political decline was
not slow to set in, despite the noble efforts of great
statesmen and warriors who endeavored to steer the
ship of state clear of the rocks of destruction for
which she was headed, propelled by the exalted but
impractical ideals of individual liberty on the part of
the citizenry, and by the selfish designs of powerful
and greedy neighbors aided in their destructive work
by the ambitions and selfish particularism of certain
Polish elements.
o
* W. R. Morfill "Poland," N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908, p. 94.
FIG. 92 AN ALTAR CLOTH EMBROIDERED BY QUEEN ANNA JAGIELLON
CHAPTER X.
The Catholic Reaction
After the ignominious flight of King tlenry new
elections were ordered. In addition to the candidates
of the preceding election a few more ap-
The Reforms peared, but the issue simmered down to
of Stefan a c h o j ce between the Austrian Emperor,
15*6-1586 Maximilian II, and Stefan Batory, Duke
of Transylvania, who was married to
Anna Jagiellon, sister of Zygmunt II August. The
Senate elected the former, the nobles the latter, and
no compromise could be reached. Both sides gathered
forces for a bloody decision of the question. Batory
was first to arrive at Cracow, while the city was held
by his supporters, and was promptly crowned in 1576.
The party of the Emperor was loosing strength and
soon capitulated. Batory was recognized throughout
Poland and Lithuania with the exception of West
Prussia. As a consequence a short war ensued, in
the course of which Danzig suffered greatly for its
obstinacy, and the rebellion came to a speedy end.
While the unanimous election of Henry Valois
had been a keen disappointment, the divided election
of Batory was to be a great success. The new King
was a man of rare attainments and unusual abilities.
Accomplished in the arts of diplomacy and warfare,
he combined in one person the statesman and the
general, blending wisdom and tact with knowledge
and determination. He never transgressed any of his
constitutional privileges and scrupulously respected
THE CATHOLIC REACTION
171
(J. Matey ko)
FIG. 93 STEFAN BATORY (1574-1686)
172 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the rights of the nobles, but in return demanded a
similarly unequivocal respect of the law on the part
of others, and dealt very decisively and severely with
those who exhibited anarchistic proclivities. Famous
is the case of the brothers Zborowski, powerful and
wealthy palatines, who combined ambition with rest-
less spirit. Samuel Zborowski had been banished
from the country by Henri Valois, but returned in
Batory's time, and launched a furious campaign
against the King and his able chancellor, John Za-
moyski, in the course of which he even went so far as
to invoke the aid of foreign monarchs. When over-
powered by Batory he was promptly executed and his
brother and co-worker exiled from the country. The
palatines soon realized that it was not a figurehead
who sat on the throne of Poland. George Oscik, the
Lithuanian magnate who carried on treacherous ne-
gotations with the Tsar of Muscovy, was, like
Zborowski, dealt with summarily.
It is significant that one of Batory's first reforms
concerned the judiciary. The King's Court, to which
final appeals were taken, in the course of time
became a most ineffcient institution, clogged with ac-
cumulated business and too remote from the people
in a time when means of communication were very
scanty and poor. Batory established three tribunals
which were to take the place of the King's Court of
Appeals in civil matters. The tribunal at Piotrkow
had jurisdiction over Great Poland, that of Lublin
over Little Poland, and a separate tribunal was estab-
lished for Lithuania. The King's Court continued to
hear appeals in criminal cases. The judges of the
tribunals were elected by the nobility. The King's
consent to elective judges was not obtained until the
Diet refused to vote the necessary funds for the war
with Muscovy. The emancipation of the nobles from
173
royal jurisdiction abolished the last vestige of kingly
power over them. Moreover, the King's Court had
been the only institution in which the despised
burghers were on a footing of equality with the nobles.
In defense of the nobles with reference to their atti-
tude toward other estates, it must be stated that they
FIG. 94 CHANCELLOR JAN ZAMOYSKI, 1541-1605,
Great statesman and democrat, author of the famous work "De Senatu
Romano" and founder of the Zamosd Academy
exclusively bore many state and military burdens, and
that they had not considered their estate as a close
corporation. On the contrary, thanks to the influence
of Chancellor John Zamoyski, one of the greatest an-d
finest spirits of Poland, thousands from among the
burghers and business people were ennobled. The
174 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
demand for elective judges was, however, against the
political ideals of the King who well realized that
what the country most needed was not more liberties,
but a strong centralized power to guide it, and that
any dissipation of such a centralized power was de-
trimental.
Aiming to establish a strong monarchial govern-
ment, Batory singled out the Catholic Church for his
particular favors. The principles of the Church
favored the monarchial idea. The Catholic Church
taught that the source of royal power was divine and
that absolute monarchy was the best form of govern-
ment, sanctioned by the Scriptures. The Jesuits were
particularly gifted exponents of this theory and for
that reason were greatly encouraged by the King.
Despite Batory's strong leaning toward the Catholic
Church he had, however, never submitted to the insist-
ent demands made upon him to abrogate the Articles
of the Warsaw Confederation, which he had sworn to
maintain. .Although he rejoiced to see the steady
decline of the Reformation movement in Poland, he
never broke his pledge of tolerance.
Batory's illustrious reign is noted not only for
his successful curbing of anarchy, but also for his
wise foreign policy and his success in bringing about
the organization of a strong standing army, the
origin of which dated back to the time of Zygmunt II
August, when the Diet had voted one-fourth of the
income from the crown lands for defensive military
purposes. A strong army was needed for the exe-
cution of Batory's plans which aimed at the develop-
ment of Ukraine and a free access to the Black Sea,
made hitherto impossible by the constant raids of
Turks and Tartars. It did not take him long to
organize a large and efficient army. Peasants were
THE CATHOLIC REACTION
175
176 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
encouraged to join the infantry, and in compensation
for their services their families were granted exemp-
tion from certain duties. Many of the peasants were
raised to the rank of nobles in recognition of their
valor. The Cossacks were drafted into the regular
service and organized into regiments of light cavalry.
While Batory was organizing the army, Ivan the Ter-
rible invaded Livonia in 1577 and ruthlessly devas-
tated the country. The Polish King was not quite
ready to meet him, but very soon he rallied his forces
and personally led them against the Muscovites. Not
only were they driven out of Livonia, but were
pursued eastward to Pskov. Ivan sued for peace
but Batory, though hampered by a lack of financial
support from the Diet, refused to negotiate. The
Tsar then brought into play all his powers of
Oriental treachery and diplomacy. He again assured
the Pope that he contemplated joining the Roman
Church and sending an expedition against Turkey.
In return he asked support against the Polish King,
whom he called the ally of the Infidel. The Pope
dispatched Antonio Possevino, a famous Jesuit, who
persuaded Batory that it was for the best interests
of the Church to establish peace. The treaty which
followed, 1582, deprived Ivan of all his previous pos-
sesions in Livonia and of the Duchy of Polotsk.
Batory's dream of conquering Moscow and adding
this vast territory to the Polish union was not real-
ized at the time, but he never abandoned it.
To offset the influence of Great Britain, then
supporting Muscovy, Batory conceived the plan of
strengthening the league of the Baltic cities. Amidst
preparations for a new campaign against Muscovy,
which was to be followed by another against Turkey,
this great monarch died, after a short illness, in
THE CATHOLIC REACTION 177
Grodno, on December 12, 1586, being only fifty-three
years old.
The firm political structure he had reared by his
FIG. 96 THE TOMB OF STEFAN BATORY AT THE CATHEDRAL OF CRACOW
constructive genius and the strong government he
had established with the aid of Za-
The Bigotry moyski were soon to collapse, during
of Zygmunt ^ Q s t ormv an( j turbulent interregnum
1587-1632 which followed his untimely death.
The interregnum, 1586-1587, ended
in a war. The chief candidates for the Polish throne
178
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
were the Swedish Archduke Zygmunt Vasa, son of
King John and Catherine Jagiellon, the second sister
of Zygmunt II August, and Maximillian, brother of
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 97 ZYGMUNT III (1587-1632)
the Emperor Rudolph II. A strong party of nobles
under the leadership of John Zamoyski favored the
Swedish candidate. The other was commanded by
Zborowski, who raged with hatred toward the great
THE CATHOLIC REACTION 179
Chancellor of the late King. All the turbulent and
boisterous elements held in leash by the strong hand
of Batory gave vent to their reactionary impulses
when kindled by partisan and political animosity.
Riots broke out in many places. The discussions in
the Convocation Diet were extremely animated and
prolonged. The country was desirous of having
the interregnum ended, but evidently no compromise
could be reached. Finally, on the 19th of August,
1587, the Swedish Archduke was declared King by
the Zamoyski faction. Three days later the Zborows-
kis announced the election of Maximillian. The
choice of the Zamoyski faction prevailed, but the
victory of the partisans of the Swedish Archduke
proved to be a great disappointment at first and a
veritable calamity in the end. The new King, though
very young, was not that tabula rasa he was depicted
by his tutor which would easily receive the impress
the Poles wanted to make on it. On the contrary,
he was possessed of a strong character and came
to Poland with a ready political program which
was entirely out of accord with the political ten-
dencies of the party that had elected him. The new
King was ultra-Catholic and regarded the propaga-
tion of the Faith as his chief mission. In this he
naturally sided with the Hapsburgs of Austria and
Spain. The party that had elected him, though com-
prised in a large majority of Catholics attached to the
Church, was heir to the lofty principles of tolerance
which characterized the Jagiellon polity, and for that
reason chiefly was so vigorously opposed to the elec-
tion of Maximillian, seeing in a union with the Haps-
burgs a danger to the time-honored institutions of the
Republic. Zygmunt very soon alienated his former
supporters and began very ardently to foster Catholi-
cism by all available means. He married one of the
180 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Austrian princesses without asking the consent of
the Senate. He thus closely bound himself to the
Hapsburgs and violated the constitution which he
had sworn to respect. To make matters worse, it
was soon discovered that he was planning to abdi-
cate the throne in favor of Ernest Hapsburg in return
for the support of his claims in Sweden by the Em-
peror. The understanding also provided that Ernest
was to release him from the pledge of ceding
Esthonia to Poland, to which he had sworn in the
pacta conventa. He was impeached, and though
at the 'Inquisitorial" (as it was called) session of the
Diet he denied the charges, his prestige became
undermined, 1592.
Meanwhile the Catholic reaction had been
making great headway. The Jesuits began to exer-
cise a powerful influence over the edu-
cation and modes of thou g ht of the
influence people. Their pupils were brought up
in a hitherto unheard-of fanaticism and
in an abject servility to the mighty. The very con-
servative Polish historian, Professor Sokolowski so
characterizes the results of the Jesuit endeavors:
"Superficiality and pompousness had become the chief char-
acteristics of literature as well as of education ; the authors and
orators concealed their dearth of thought and lack of substance
under a flood of classical quotations ; the manly style of the time
of Zygmunt II August dissolved itself into macaronism, seasoned
with seeming earnestness. The style once so deftly ridiculed by
Kochanowski (Carmen Macaronicum) received the right of
citizenship in literature, and -encyclopaedic knowledge drowned
all originality of thought and soberness of judgment."
The King encouraged far-reaching repressive
measures and gave a personal example of intolerance
by withholding all state offices from non-conformists
or "dissidents," and by not heeding the complaints
THE CATHOLIC REACTION
181
made against the "heretical tumults." The Protes-
tants were held up to scorn, subjected to maltreat-
ment as enemies of their own country, and were made
the victims of the street riots and pillage. Religious
fanaticism, hitherto alien to the Polish character, was
diligently instilled by a foreign King seeking to
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 98 PETER SKARGA, the great preacher of the time of Zygmunt III
advance his own interests through an exaggerated
devotion to the Church. The Jesuits became a veri-
table power, and through their influence alone could
one obtain offices and distinction. Great statesmen
and patriots, like John Zamoyski and Peter Skarga,
182
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
THE CATHOLIC REACTION 183
the King's chaplain, himself a Jesuit, and others, saw
that the course pursued by the King was fatal to the
country.
The dynastic difficulties of the King in his native
country to the north plunged Poland into a series of
disastrous wars. John III Vasa died in 1592. At
FIG. 100 HETMAN JAN KAROL CHODKIEWICZ
the news of his father's death Zygmunt went to
Sweden. Many among the Poles hoped that he would
never return. Unfortunately for Poland, Sweden
fearing the fanatic, refused to recognize him, although
he was crowned at Upsala. His uncle, the Duke of
Sudermania, headed the opposition. When the latter
ascended the throne as Charles IX, Zygmunt turned
184 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
to Poland with a request for support against his
uncle. The Polish Diet refused the support, where-
upon Zygmunt recalled the "pacta conventa" and
magnanimously offered Esthonia to Poland in order
to force an inevitable war upon an unwilling country.
The Polish victory under Chodkiewicz at Kirchholm,
in 1605, would have led to a great offensive campaign
against Sweden had the nation's attention not been
turned to an internal rebellion and a war with Mus-
covy.
The rebellion, known as that of Zebrzydowski,
who was its leader, was an attempt to overthrow the
King whose foreign policy was so inimi-
' ebc " ion cal to the interests of the country, and
Against the . . . , "
King who so persistently opposed every
measure of sound internal reform.
When a proposal of changing the method of elections
was made, whereby the principle of majority vote
was to supersede the unanimity of decision, the King
vetoed the measure. It was apparent to everybody
that "absolutum dominium" was the aim of the King,
who disregarded all constitutional restrictions. In
1605 he again married a Hapsburg Princess and
again without the consent of the Senate. The oc-
casion produced the spark which caused the con-
flagration. The opposition, now deprived of the wise
and conservative leadership of Zamoyski who had
died, formed a confederacy and raised a considerable
rebel army. Unfortunately they failed in their des-
perate attempt to get rid of the blighting influence of
the royal enemy of Poland, and the victorious King
could continue unhamperd his disastrous policy of
intrigue, and selfishness. It was on account of his
personal character that the Russian campaign, in-
augurated most auspiciously, ended in a fiasco.
THE CATHOLIC REACTION
185
The self-styled Tsar of Russia, Demetrius, who
followed the murdered Boris Godunov to the throne
of Moscow, was a man of western
sympathies and a friend of Poland.
His wife and court were Polish. In
1606, while the Zebrzydowski rebellion was raging in
Poland, the agents of Basil Shooyski murdered
The War with
Muscovy
X..
FIG. 101 HETMAN STANISL.AV ZOLKIEWSKI, the conqueror of Moscow
Demetrius and with him a large number of Poles
residing in Moscow. This act led to war with Poland.
The Polish hetman, or commander-in-chief, Stanislav
Zolkiewski, reached Moscow, took Shooyski and his
family as prisoners and entered into negotiations
with the Council of Boyars. By a solemn treaty,
the boyars recognized Wladyslav, the son of the
Polish King, as their Tsar and subsequently the
186 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
population of the capital took an oath of fealty. A
splendid opportunity offered itself for Poland to civil-
ize the vast domains of Muscovy. The fanatical
and ambitious Zygmunt frustrated this great op-
portunity by recalling Zolkiewski and the crown
troops from Moscow and by insisting on his personal
claims to the crown of the Tsars. The population
of the Muscovite capital abhorred the thought of a
Jesuitic sovereign. Aided by the Orthodox clergy
and other conservative elements of Moscow who
feared the influence of the democratic institutions of
Poland the opposition rose, and an anti-Polish
movement was successfully launched. Patriarch
Hermogen absolved the people from the sworn oath.
At the news Zygmunt, having captured Smolensk,
hastened to Moscow, but came too late. The private
Polish troops stationed there could not curb the
animated bands directed by the butcher Minin and
the Prince Pojarski. Michael Romanoff was elected
Tsar, and the dream of union with Russia under
Polish leadership, conceived by Witold and running
like a red thread through the political thought of the
Jagiellon dynasty, came to a seeming end, though
Wladyslav did not abandon his claims to the throne
of the Tsars.
No sooner had the conflict with Muscovy ter-
minated than the dark clouds of two new wars gath-
ered on the horizon. The Cossacks,
I ?!- Ec l" whom the Polish frontier palatines
of the Thirty , . ,
Years' War endeavored to harness, were not only
rebelling against all restriction but
their constant raids on Turkey both in Europe and
Asia Minor brought on retaliatory expeditions by
the Tartars, instigated by the Sultan. Polish pala-
tines themselves, who owned estates larger than
many a sovereign principality in central Europe,
THE CATHOLIC REACTION 187
were carrying on wars of their own with the Hos-
podars of Moldavia and also with the Turks and
Tartars, and many a time placed the Polish govern-
ment in a most awkward position. Advantage was
taken by Turkey of one those local encounters to de-
clare war on Poland. The campaign was undertaken
chiefly with a .view of striking at Austria which was
then in the throes of the Thirty Years' War and
in, which she was indirectly assisted by Poland. The
Polish King endeavored, but did not succeed, to bring
Poland to the side of the Hapsburgs. He, however,
permitted recruiting volunteers for the army of Ferd-
inand II, his brother-in-law. A great Turkish host
invaded Poland in 1620 and defeated a valiant but
small army under the leadership of the venerable
Zolkiewski. The famous conqueror of Moscow fell
in the battle of Cecora, not far from Jassy, and the
Polish army was annihilated. This bloody and de-
termined battle retarded the progress of the Turkish
advance and by preventing the Ottoman armies from
effecting a juncture with their allies, enabled the
Emperor to win the famous battle of the White Hill.
The Turks renewed their campaign on a larger scale
in the following spring, but were halted by the des-
perate defense of Chocim on the Dniester. In 1621
peace was restored between Poland and the Porte.
Meanwhile, the successor of Charles IX of
Sweden, the gifted Gustavus Adolphus, desirous of
finally disposing of his cousin's claims, sent an ex-
pedition which, in 1617, occupied Livonia. A series of
pour-parlers followed. The Poles were anxious for
peace and refused any money to carry on further war,
but the ambitious King would not consent to renounce
his claims. The conflict continued intermittently.
When the Swedish troops, however, overran West
Prussia and threatened the city of Thorn, the Diet
188 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
granted the necessary funds to start a vigorous
defense. In 1629 Hetman Stanislav Koniecpolski
defeated the Swedes, and by the intervention of En-
gland and France, both vitally interested in the suc-
cess of Gustavus Adolphus, a six years' truce was
established, the terms of which were most unfavor-
able for Poland. By this truce of Altmark Sweden
was allowed to retain possession of her Livonian
conquests, besides holding a large portion of the
Baltic littoral, which gave her control of the principal
trade routes of the Baltic and a considerable revenue
derived from port tolls. The amout of these tolls in
.1627 alone amounted to 500,000 rix-dollars.
Not a single measure championed by the King
brought any gains to Poland. It was also in the
reign of Zygmunt III that the unfortunate error of
Polish diplomacy with reference to East Prussia was
consummated. The recognition, by the last Jagiellon,
of the right of the Brandenburg Electors to succes-
sion in East Prussia in the case of extinction of the
Anspach line, was confirmed in the year 1618, when
the Elector became the ruler of that part of Prussia.
The ineptitude and intolerance of Polish diplo-
macy of the Vasa period are also partly responsible
for the failure to briner all the Ruthe-
The Umate . . *? , ...
Church mans into a union with the prevailing
religion in Poland. From the very first
years of the political consolidation of Poland with
Lithuania and Ruthenia it was the greatest concern
of the statesmen of the united countries to bring the
Ruthenians closer to the Catholic Church; and it was
with this view that Jagiello and Witold delegated
Catholic and Ruthenian bishops first to the Council
of Constance 1414-1418, where the matter was not
settled, and later to the Councils of Basel and
Florence, 1431-1449. As is well known, the union
THE CATHOLIC REACTION 189
of the Eastern and Western churches was established
in Florence in 1439, each church retaining its own
rites and liturgy, but both recognizing the Roman
Pope as the sole head of the Church. The union
was not lasting anywhere except in Poland, where
it remained in force practically throughout the XVth
century. The Grand Duke of Moscow repudiated
it from the very beginning, and in Greece it came
to an end with the fall of Constantinople. It was
a great fault on the part of Poland to allow the union
to disintegrate and to permit the Ruthenians to go
back again, jointly with the Muscovite Church, under
the corruptive influence of Constantinople. This
political blunder was in large measure due to the
Reformation. With the advent of the Reformation
the idea of the union became unpopular, the Protes-
tants joining hands with the Ruthenians to under-
mine the established Church. With the Catholic
reaction setting in at the close of the XVIth century
the idea of the union again became a matter of con-
siderable concern. The conditions in the Orthodox
Church at the time were most revolting, and strongly
resembled those of the Roman Church in Luther's
days. The metropolitans and bishops were leading
dissolute lives, and the common clergy were ignorant
and equally immoral. High ecclesiastical offices
could be obtained for money or by favoritism. Under
the influence of the expurgated Catholic Church the
conditions in the Ruthenian clergy began to change
for the better, and, goaded on by Polish statesmen,
the Ruthenian bishops convoked a synod at the
Lithuanian city of Brzesc (now known by the Rus-
sian name of Brest-Litovsk) in 1595 to discuss means
of reform and the possibility of renewing the union
with the Roman Church. The union of the two
churches received at the time paramount importance
190 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
in view of the fact that Muscovy, in retaliation for the
unscrupulous exploitation on the part of the Patriar-
chate of Constantinople, established its own church
with the Tsar at the head (1589), and the fear of the
possible gravitation of the Ruthenians toward Mos-
cow became very real and entirely justified. As early
as 1567, even before the separate Muscovite Church
FIG. 102 THE UNIATE CATHEDRAL, OF ST. JUR AT LEMBERG
was established, the metropolitan of Moscow, Nikon,
called himself the Patriarch of Great and Little Rus-
sia. The proceedings of the synod and the ultimate
schism proved conclusively that in certain groups
there were decided leanings toward the Muscovite
Church, and that they were ready to exert every
effort to prevent a union with the prevailing Church
THE CATHOLIC REACTION 191
in Poland. A considerable element among the
Ruthenian schismatics was also actuated by Protes-
tant motives. As a result of the discordant interests
only about two-thirds of the Ruthenians joined the
union. The dioceses of Lemberg, Przemysl, Lutsk
and Mohilev were left in the hands of the schismatics.
All the others, not excluding that of Kieff, came
into the Uniate Church. In a considerable measure
the failure to rally greater support of the union was
due to the shortsightedness and obstinacy of the Polish
clergy in their refusal to admit the Ruthenian bishops
to membership in the Polish Senate. The well-
conceived but poorly executed Brzesc union resulted
in unfortunate division and strife in Ukraine, that
had many lamentable results and which contributed
in a degree to the precipitation of the Cossack rebel-
lions and the ultimate loss of the Cossacks to Poland.
The regrettably long reign of Zygmunt III Vasa,
1587-1632, characterized by intolerance, intrigue and
incompetency, is the turning point in Polish history.
The era of political decline begins with him, bright-
ened by moments of unequalled heroism and supreme
political wisdom.
(J. Kossak pinx)
FIG 103 A PEASANT HORSE TEAM OF THE PROVINCE OF CRACOW
CHAPTER XI.
The Polish Constitution
The constitution of Poland was never written.
It was a body of laws sanctioned by ancient custom
and subsequent legislation. By the end of Zygmunt
Vasa's reign it became a rigid state instrument, and
underwent but few changes until the last quarter of
the XYIIIth century.
The Commonwealth of Poland consisted of the
Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Polish an< ^ ^ e domains f Prussia, Mazovia,
Republic Zmudz (Samogitia), Kieff, Volhynia,
Podolia, Podlasie and Livonia or
Inflanty. The victories over Muscovy in the XVIIth
century placed a number of other territories under
Polish sovereignty. In addition, Poland exercised
sovereign power over Courland, East Prussia, Mol-
davia and Wallachia. Since the establishment of the
union among the component states at Lublin in 1569
Poland had been a Republic, at the head of which
stood an elective King.
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 193
The Piasts were hereditary rulers of Poland. By
the will of the childless Kazimir the Great, the last
The Kin Piast, the crown of Poland went to his
nephew, Ludwig of Hungary. If Lud-
wig had left male heirs, their right to the Polish
throne would have been undeniable. There was no
law or custom, however, which would recognize a
woman to hereditary right of succession. To secure
this right for his (laughters, Ludwig had to com-
promise, and granted the famous. privilege of Kos-
zyce in 1374. His daughter, or the grand niece of
Kazimir the Great, was elected. If she had sons they
would have inherited the right to the Polish throne.
But Jadwiga died childless, and the status of her
consort, Jagiello, was not clearly defined. In con-
sequence, his sons, by a Ruthenian princess, were not
recognized as royal heirs in Poland. With Jagiello's
oldest son, therefore, begins the period of elective
kings. It was only because the Poles desired to pre-
serve the union with Lithuania, where the descend-
ants of Jagiello had hereditary rights, and not be-
cause of any legal obligations, that they had elected
kings of his house until the extinction of the dynasty.
The sons of the King had no more claims to the
throne than anyone else.
Every nobleman of Poland, Lithuania and the
other parts of the Republic had a right to vote. The
representatives of the more important
The Elections ,
cities were members ot the electorate,
as were also Poland's vassals, with the exception of
the Duke of Prussia, to whom this privilege was
denied. Until the end of the Jagiellon dynasty the
ejections were indirect, through representatives in
local assemblies and the Diet. After the reign of
Zygmunt II August, "viritim" or direct elections in
person prevailed. The viritim elections took place in
194 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
a suburb of Warsaw, where the knighthood and
dignitaries formed two separate camps. Here the
assembled electorate listened to the exhortations of
the representatives of the candidates and their sup-
porters. On the day set for the election the Senators
FIG. 104 AN ELECTION CAMP
and Deputies met with the nobility of their respect-
ive provinces and took a viva voce vote on the various
candidates. Unanimous consent was necessary to
make the election valid. The Primate announced the
result of the election.
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 195
The elected candidate, first by his representa-
tives and then in person, swore to uphold the consti-
tutional privileges enumerated in the pacta conventa,
which the pre-election or "convocation diet" had
drawn up, whereupon a duly executed diploma of
election was handed to him. He did not become,
however, vested with monarchial authority until
after the coronation which took place at Cracow.
The coronation ceremony was followed by a special
"coronation diet," at which the King confirmed the
laws of the Commonwealth.
At first the King's power was considerable. He
was the lawmaker, and although at a comparatively
early period he regularly consulted his
Council, he was not legally bound by
and Duties of . , . ' . i j , 1
the King lts decisions, tie could not, however,
infringe upon the privileges and rights
of the several estates. The law of 1505, known as
"Nihil novi," limited his legislative power consider-
ably and gave it to the Diet.
The King was the supreme judge until the elect-
ive tribunals were established in Batory's time,
which, however, did not supersede him in civil mat-
ters. He was commander-in-chief of the army. He
could call out the national militia, but only with the
consent of the Diet, of which he was an integral part.
He convened the national and local diets at times
instanced by law and at other times on extraordinary
occasions. He specified the matters to be submitted
for the consideration of the Diet. The resolutions and
acts of the Diet, as well as court decrees, were issued
in his name. He had power to appoint ambassadors
to foreign countries, but could give them instructions
in minor matters only. The ambassadors were re-
sponsible to the Diet. Similarly, the King could
confer with foreign representatives only in the pres-
196 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
ence of the Council of the Senate. The King could
not go abroad, marry or secure divorce, without the
assent of the Senate. Although the 'King derived
his power from the election, he was responsible to
nobody. He was merely limited by the privileges
which he granted, or which were granted by his pre-
decessors and which he confirmed. After the extinc-
tion of the Jagiellon dynasty the electorate claimed
the right to renounce allegiance to the King in case
of his disregard of the law or of the articles of the
covenant (de non praestanda obedientia).
The executive power of the State was vested in
the King. He was, however, handicapped in the
exercise of it by the life tenure of officials and by their
independence. He had the sole right to appoint civil
and military officers, but could not recall any officials
unless guilt had been established before the Diet sit-
ting as a court of justice. The right of appointing
bishops was vested in the King, and he had the power
to donate or mortgage crown lands.
All offices were life tenures. The chief offices
which, with the exception of the Hetmans and the
Offi Under-Treasurer, entitled the incum-
bents to senatorial dignities were:
1. The Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal.
Both ecclesiastical and temporal nobles could hold
this office. The Chancellor was the representative of
the King and the interpreter of his will and inten-
tions. He read the speeches of the Crown, presented
to the Diet the matters for consideration, negotiated
with foreign ambassadors and acted as intermediary
between the people and the king. All royal decrees,
mandates and correspondence was prepared and
signed by him.
2. The Under-Chancellor attended to minor af-
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 197
fairs and assumed the duties of the Chancellor in his
absence.
3. The Grand Marshall had charge of the
King's safety, and was at the head of the adminis-
tration of the police and judicial departments of the
capital and its vicinity. His jurisdiction was very
large.
4. Two Under-Marshalls, assisting the Grand
Marshall, were also regular officials.
5. The State Treasurer had charge over the
royal exchequer. He was responsible for the col-
lection of revenue and the expenditures approved by
the Diet. His reports were regularly submitted to
the Diet, and for every misuse of funds he was re-
sponsible with his private fortune. He was also in
charge of the mint and of the royal domains.
6. An Under-Treasurer attended to the minor
matters of the office.
7. and 8. One Grand Hetman commanded the
Crown army and another the Lithuanian army. They
were charged with the duty of defending the country
against invasion and of guarding the Republic
against internal disturbances.
9. The Field Hetman was a military official of
a lower rank. His duty was to defend the frontiers
of the country. He also substituted the Grand Het-
man when necessary.
All the above mentioned dignitaries were ex-
officio ministers of state.
There were many minor state or court offices,
some of which during the course of time lost their
significance and were retained merely for honorary
designations.
Of the crown officers who discharged their
duties outside of the capital, the following were the
most important:
198 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The "Woyevoda" was a provincial Governor
with a very limited duty and responsibility. At first
he acted as chairman of the provincial diet, but later
this custom came into disuse. The Woyevoda led
the militia of his province in case of war, looked after
the weights and measures in towns, prescribed the
prices of products, and had jurisdiction over Jews.
The office entitled the holder to a seat in the Senate.
The ''Castellan's'' was one of the offices which,
like that of the Woyevoda, had a historical tradition,
but which in time proved to be a mere honorary title
of the leader of the nobilitv of a district. In case of
w
war he organized the citizens of the district and led
them to the Woyevoda. The office gave the incum-
bent senatorial rank.
The actual executive work in the country was
done by the Starostas. They enforced the decrees,
and had charge over the law and order of their respect-
ive districts. They were also judges of the nobility
in criminal matters, and sometimes, but very seldom,
in civil cases also. The civil jurisdiction was almost
wholly in the hands of special judges, appointed by
the King from the lists of candidates presented by
the nobility of the districts.
Some of the offices were considered incompatible,
i. e., could not be held at the same time by one and
the same person. No two provincial
Incompatibiha rr , r , , * j i
offices could be filled by one person; a
crown dignitary could not hold a provincial office;
the Hetman could not be a Marshall, neither could
the Chancellor be Treasurer of the Crown.
The King, the Senators and the representatives
of the knighthood constituted the Polish Diet or
Parliament. The King was an integ-
ral part of the Diet, although his
constant presence during the sessions was not re-
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 199
quired. At the time of the death of Kazimir the
Great, in 1370, there were as yet no general assem-
blies of the nobles. Each province or district dis-
cussed its local affairs in small conventions. Gradu-
ally inter-provincial congresses began to be called to
discuss affairs of a more general nature. At first
these congresses were rare, but at the beginning of the
XVth century they became more frequent. One
reason for them was the development of the mutual-
ity of interests with the greater consolidation of the
country; another, the more frequent requests of the
king for advice and approval of his activities. The
more limited his power became the more frequent
were the meetings of the representatives of the vari-
ous sections of the country. Hussitism, contro-
versies over church tithes, elections of the king, and
other such matters called for frequent national assem-
blies of the nobles of the country. As there was no
regular Diet, they first formed confederacies. Some-
times the representatives of the local assemblies met
with the king's council. In this way, to the ancient
advisory council of the king, consisting of his rela-
tives, ministers, bishops, woyevodas and castellans
were added the more democratic elements. The new-
comers regarded their presence in the Council as of
right and not of royal grace. When their numbers
grew, and they became the spokesmen of a definite
economic and social class, they were differentiated
from the bishops and dignitaries and were requested
to meet separately from the original council, which in
contradistinction to the chamber of the deputies of
the local assemblies of the nobles, was designated as
the Senate. The past history of the Senate determined
its composition. It consisted of the archbishops and
bishops, ministers of state, castellans and woyevodas.
The high state offices created after the Senate was
200 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
definitely constituted (the middle of the XVth cen-
tury) did not find representation in it. That is why
the Under-Treasurer and the Hetmans had no seats in
the Senate. The number of senators in the year 1569
was 140; their number increased to 150 during the
reign of Wladyslav IV and John Kazimir. After the
loss of Livonia the number of senators decreased by
four.
The Deputies were elected by the land assem-
blies which were the legislative organs of the local
autonomous government, and were bound to observe
the mandates given to them. Some measures, like
those referring to taxation, had to receive the unani-
mous consent of the Diet and then of the local as-
semblies. This procedure was in conformity with
the old custom whereby the King's Council had to
get the consent of every local assembly for a measure
infringing upon the privileges of the nobles. The
theory of the procedure was that the privileges of the
nobles formed not only the objective law of the coun-
try, but the subjective right of every individual whom
they concerned. For every contemplated change
of the privileges the consent of all those whom the
change concerned was therefore required. When the
national assembly took the place of the local assem-
blies the unanimous consent of the representatives
and their constituencies was still required for the
validity of any measure which concerned the nobility
as a class, or as individuals. When the House of
Representatives was definitely differentiated from
the King's Council, in 1493, the representation of the
nobilty was very slight. Usually a province or the
administrative unit presided over by a woyevoda sent
two representatives. By the middle of the XVIth
century there were not more than two score of repre-
sentatives in the House. During the reign of the
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 201
first two Zygmunts their numbers increased. The
local assemblies sent six delegates each. In 1569
there were 95 representatives in the House. In the
next century the number of deputies was increased
to 172.
There was no specified place or time for the ses-
sions of the Diet. The king summoned it whenever
occasion arose. Sometimes it met twice a year, at
other times once in several years. In the XVth cen-
tury the sessions lasted for a few days; in the XVIth
century deliberations lasted several months. Later
on the Diet met regularly every second year, and the
time limit was six weeks. Extraordinary sessions
could be called between the regular sessions and were
to last not more than two weeks. At first the Diets
met chiefly in Piotrkow, later in Warsaw. Although
unanimous consent was required for the validity of
the measures, yet it was not very difficult to obtain
it, despite the specific instructions of local assemblies.
The public spirit animating the Diet conquered all
technical difficulties. Later on attempts, such as that
by John Zamoyski, were made to introduce the prin-
ciples of modern parliamentarism. They failed on
account of the reaction which set in after the collapse
of the Protestant Reformation movement.
The "Liberum veto," whereby one deputy could
dissolve a session of Parliament and render nuga-
tory all its previous decisions, came into life in the
middle of the XVIIth century, in the era of moral and
political decline.
The Confederacies were unions formed by the
nobility, or magnates, the Diet or the King, with the
aim of achieving certain things which
Confederacies , 1-11 i
could not be obtained by ordinary
means. They supplemented, as it were, the im-
perfect constitutional machinery. They first came
202 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
into being during the interregnum following the
death of Ludwig in 1382, and took the place of the
regular government which, acting in the name of
the King, was without legal sanction during the
interregnum. After the death of Zygmunt II August
in 1572, and later, attempts were made to provide
for regular authority during an interregnum but
were frustrated. Confederacies were sometimes
formed during the life of the king when the govern-
ment did not or could not fulfill its duties.
The legal basis for the confederacies lay in the
conception of the supreme sovereignty of the nobil-
ity. That was why a general confederacy, i. e., com-
prising the representation of the whole nobility, was
considered superior to the king 1 . They sometimes
attempted to subject the king to their jurisdiction.
Naturally the power of the confederacy depended on
its strength. A confederacy, which failed on account
of lack of strength, was a rebellion. Sometimes the
king formed counter confederacies. When the king
joined a confederacy it received legal sanction from
the outset. The closest analogy in modern times to
a Polish confederacy was the Ulster movement
against Irish Home Rule. In Poland Sir Edward
Carson would have been recognized as the Marshall of
the confederacy. With several counsellors added, he
would have constituted the executive board of the
confederacy. The representatives of the various dis-
tricts in the confederacy formed a Council similar to
the Diet. When the confederacy was general, i. e.,
embracing the whole country, the enactments of the
Council superseded those of the regular Diet. The
decisions of the confederacy were taken by a major-
ity vote. In view of the fact that the Diets required
unanimous vote, the confederacies were at times the
only way out of serious difficulties. In the long run,
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 203
however, they did more harm than good in undermin-
ing the already weak foundation on which public law
rested in Poland.
Each estate or class of Polish population had a
distinct legal position with its own courts vested with
judicial authority. The district courts
Administration J . , . . J , . ,
of justice with elective judges were the lower
courts of the nobility. The court met
three times a year in a place designated by law and
had jurisdiction over civil matters. The chamber-
lain's courts had cognizance over land boundary
disputes. The starostas' courts had jurisdiction over
criminal cases, and entertained civil suits in cases
where one of the parties was a non-resident noble.
For gathering evidence the courts had power to ap-
point special commissions. Appeals from all the above
courts in civil matters could be taken to the tribunals,
of which there were three: one for Great Poland,
one for Little Poland and the third for Lithuania.
Appeals in criminal cases were taken to the King's
court. No appeal from a decision of the Tribunal
could be taken to the King's court. At times the Diet
acted as a court, but only in cases referred to it by the
tribunals. Cases of lese majeste and of high treason
came into its competence. The trial could not last
longer than the time specified for the session of the
Diet, and a liberum veto could annul the court decrees.
In matters pertaining to land ownership and the
collection of tithes the clergy had to resort to ordinary
courts. In criminal offences of the clergy, and in
matters pertaining to canon law, the bishops wielded
judicial authority. The bishop's court was the court
of first instance, the primate's court the second, and
the nuncio's court the third.
The townspeople had their own courts based on
German law, with elective judges and the mayor as
204 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
presiding officer. Appeals from these courts went to
the King's court.
The peasants were dependent in their disputes
upon the owner of the village. In those villages
which were founded upon the German law, elective
-courts remained, but the chief of the village became
in time an appointee of the owner of the manor and a
tool in his hands.
The Jews had their own courts, but in cases
against Gentiles jurisdiction was in the hands of the
Governor's or Woyevoda's courts; appeals could be
taken to the King's court. Sometimes the King's
court acted as a court of first instance. Jews who
settled in the villages came within the jurisdiction of
the owner of the village without the right of appeal.
The state revenue was derived from various
duties and taxes, and from the leasing of the crown
Finances domains. The land tax was a general
tax, from which only the clergy, and
later the nobility also, were exempt. The products
of the salt and metal mines were taxed, as were also
dwellings in the country and in the cities. Mint
seigniorage, excise taxes, the various taxes levied in
the cities on commerce, transportation, manufac-
tures and crafts, and the Jewish capitation tax were
the other kinds of state revenue. The tax rate was a
variable quantity; in cases of need the Diet would
double, treble and even quadruple the usual tax rate.
Until the year 1717 the clergy were exempt from
taxation. In extraordinary cases the Church would
donate to the state treasury a "subsidium charita-
tivum," the amount of which was fixed by the Church
Council. After 1717 the Church paid a regular an-
nual tax.
The expenditures went for the maintenance of
the King and his court, for state administration
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 205
and foreign representation, and for the regular army.
The collection of taxes and the disposition of the
revenues were under the control of the Treasurer,
responsible to the Diet. Some taxes went directly
to certain officials on whose ability to collect them
depended the size of their incomes; others were
farmed out, and in s'ome instances the army officers
collected the taxes designated for the maintenance
of the army.
In addition to state taxes there were provincial
and town duties of all kinds levied by the proper
authorities. The Church tithes were devoted ex-
clusively to the maintenance of the clergy.
"Great democracies are not belligerent." On
account of the persistent refusals of the nobility to
Nation i make suitable appropriations for na-
Defence tional defence the standing army of
Poland was very small. It was com-
posed of natives and foreigners, who were paid a
stipulated amount for their services. In return for
the multifarious privileges the nobility was bound to
serve in the national militia and to answer the call to
arms whenever made by the king in conformity with
a resolution of the Diet authorizing the levy. The
nobles were obliged to appear fully equipped. A mili-
tary census was taken every five years. In theXVIIth
century about 300,000 men were registered in the
national militia. The militia was composed entirely
of heavy and light cavalry, hussars, uhlans and dra-
goons. The regular army had all kinds of arms,
ordnance, cavalry and infantry; the latter having
been put on a regular and efficient basis by King
Stefan Batory.
In addition, private troops were maintained by
the spiritual and temporal magnates. Most of the
residences of the magnates were fortified castles.
206
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The number of these castles was very large. Many
of them were very spacious and beautiful in design.
Since 1572 the Cossacks have been utilized for light
cavalry purposes and stationed at the frontiers of the
country. The "registered" (as they were called)
(Courtesy of Scribners' Sons) (Drawn by W. T. Benda)
FIG. 105 A POLISH WINGED HUSSAR
Cossacks received pay for their services and were
exempt from any control by civil authorities. They
were subject to the jurisdiction of their Chief, who, in
turn, was under the Polish Field Hetman. During
the reign of Zygmunt II August, Biala Cerkiev was
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 207
the seat of the Cossack Chief, and the depository of
their magazines and munitions. King Stefan Batory
FIG. 106 THE CASTLE OF THE LESZCZYNSKI FAMILY AT GOLUCHOV
moved the capital of the registered Cossacks to Trach-
tymirov, on the Dnieper, below the City of Kieff.
208
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The Nobles. The nobles were the ruling class
with the exclusive right to enjoy full citizenship.
Nobility was hereditary in the male
line, and an escutcheon was an outward
sign of it. The power to ennoble re-
sided originally in the King, but after
the end of the XVIth century the ap-
proval of the Diet was required. As the class con-
sciousness of the nobility grew, attempts were made
Legal Status
of the Various
Classes of the
Population
FIG. 107 THE CASTLE AT BARANOV
to restrict admission to the caste. Naturalization of
foreign nobles, after 1641, similarly became a matter
over which the Diet had sole control. In the XVIIth
century a new conception, that of a scartabellate
developed, whereby the newly ennobled persons en-
joyed but certain privileges. Only their progeny in
the third generation came into possession of full rights'
of citizenship. This was the only gradation in the
ranks of the nobility who guarded jealously against
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION
209
the rise in station of anyone by reason of heredi-
tary title. By the act of 1638 no noble could accept
or use a title which had not been registered in the acts
of the Union of Lublin in 1569. The Polish Kings
were prohibited from giving titles to Poles but were
free to bestow them upon foreigners. Orders were
not allowed in Poland. In violation of the law, the
first was established in 1705, during the period of
political disintegration.
FIG. 108 CASTLE AT KRASICZYN
The following were the special privileges and im-
munities enjoyed by the nobility exclusively: The
right to acquire and own land in the country as well
as real estate in cities, with all the wealth below the
surface; the property of the nobles was exempt from
confiscation without due process of law; only to the
nobility was the door of the more exalted temporal
and spiritual offices open; they were exempt from
taxation, making only such contributions as they
voluntarily imposed upon themselves, with the
single exception of compulsory military duty in case
of war. A noble was answerable only to his own
210
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
courts. For killing a person not of noble rank he
was punishable by a fine only. He enjoyed the right
of habeas corpus, had complete freedom of speech,
was an elector of the King, and qualified to become
a candidate for the royal office. Finally, he had a
voice in the affairs of the country by electing dele-
gates to the National Diet through the local assem-
FIG. 109 A VIEW OF THE CASTLE AT KRZY2TOP6R
blies. There was only one restriction to which the
nobles had to submit, and that was the prohibition
of being a merchant or an artisan. By settling in a
city and engaging in this kind of work a noble for-
feited all his rights to nobility.
The Clergy. Next to the nobility in order of en-
joyment of special privileges and immunities were
the Roman Catholic clergy. All the higher ecclesiasti-
cal offices were given exclusively to persons from
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION
211
among the nobility, with the exception of the "doc-
toral canons," to which only priests holding doctors'
degrees in theology, law and medicine could be ap-
pointed. Beginning with 1496 no cathedral chapter
could have more than five plebean members, all of
whom were required to have doctors' degrees. In the
case of a dearth of properly qualified doctors of noble
rank, priests from among other classes of society
FIG. 110 THE CASTLE AT PODHORCE
could be appointed. Catholic diocesan bishops were
ex-officio members of the Senate. Many high state
offices, including that of the Chancellor, were open to
the clergy, and as a rule were occupied by them alter-
natively, i. e., an office vacated by a temporal digni-
212
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tary would in turn be occupied by a spiritual person,
and vice versa.
The King appointed the bishops and canons, as
well as the abbots and rectors. Kazimir the Great
had attempted to influence the cathedral colleges in
the election of bishops, Jagiello followed his example,
and his second son, Kazimir Jagiellonczyk, obtained
this right from the Pope, confirmed later by Sixtus V
in 1589. The policy of Poland consistently endeav-
FIG. Ill THE FACADE OF THE CASTLE AT DWORNISKA
ored to submit the Church to State control. Those
among the clergy who, by importunity or procure-
ment, obtained appointments in Rome, and in this
wise infringed upon the royal prerogatives, were
liable to the penalty of exile and confiscation of
personal property.
The nobility were tireless in opposing the tax
exemptions of the clergy, the tithes and ecclesiastical
jurisdiction. By a law of 1510 the Diet prohibited
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION
213
bequests of land to the Church in order to stop the
tremendous growth of "the dead hand, "as the Church
FIG. 112 A MANOR HOUSE OF THE XVII CENTURY AT SZYMBARK
FIG. 113 A COUNTRY HOUSE OF A POLISH SQUIRE NEAR SIERADZ
estates were called. In 1562 the church courts were
deprived of the right to enforce their decrees by
214 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
means of the executive power of the State, and in 1635
appeals to Rome were made illegal. In the XVIIth
century restrictions were placed upon the building of
monasteries and convents, and further restrictions
placed upon bequests.
The Dissidents. The legal guarantees of equality
of rights of dissidents with Catholics were contained
in the provisions of the Warsaw Confederacy of 1573,
and were sworn to by every new monarch. With the
growth of the Catholic reaction they became more or
less a dead letter, and dissidents were made the sub-
jects of discrimination. No bishop of the Orthodox
Church or even of the Uniate Church was recognized
in the Senate, and State offices were very seldom filled
by persons from among the non-Conformists. In
1632 the Diet prohibited the erection of new dissident
churches in the cities of the Crown, and in 1717 this
prohibition was extended to the rest of the country.
The Arians, or anti-trinitarians, were declared to
be outside of the term ''dissidents," and were ban-
ished from the country in 1658. The underlying
motive for this radical method of dealing with the sect
was political rather than religious.
The Burghers. The XVIth and XVIIth centuries
saw the decline of the once prosperous and powerful
Polish cities. Geographical and economic conditions
as well as pernicious legislation were the causes of it.
Gdansk (Danzig) only, and a few other maritime
cities, continued to prosper. The direct interchange
of the products of the manor for the foreign manu-
factures and luxuries, and the development of self-
sufficing communities around the manor eliminated
the need of cities, and their marts and fairs. The
character of the city population changed. The old,
prosperous and respectable families became ennobled
and settled in the country; others emigrated. The
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 215
lower elements came into power, and, not appreciat-
ing the real causes of the decline of the cities, en-
deavored to put the blame upon the Jews and other
foreign elements. The weakness and disorganization
of the cities became reflected in their relation to other
elements of the population and to the Government.
The cities lost their former right to home rule and
representation, and were subjected to the authority
of state officials and private magnates. The woye-
vodas prescribed prices for city products, the rates of
excise taxes, etc., and the Diet established rules as to
profits and even as to private expenditures and the
kind of dress to be worn (lex sumptuaria). The dis-
integration of city life was accelerated by special
rights claimed by the nobility owning real estate
within the city limits and by the clergy, who did not
want to submit to the city administration and estab-
lished special jurisdiction of their own. In this they
were encouraged by the Diet which passed laws
making certain persons and houses exempt from
municipal law, and dependent solely upon provincial
authorities and their jurisdiction.
The burgesses did not have access to any state
offices nor to the higher spiritual positions. They
were excluded from the national militia. Only the
Prussian cities and the City of Cracow had a right
to the acquisition and tenure of land outside the town
limits.
Aside from the economic advantages the nobility
planned to derive, by making themselves independent
of the cities, the chief motive in destroying impor-
tant and powerful cities was to remove every pos-
sibility of furnishing the King with an ally strong
enough to overturn the existing order of things and
to introduce absolute government in Poland. The
cities declined very rapidly, and even the so-called
216
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
"storage laws" could not prevent this process. By
these laws no merchant, foreign or domestic, could
pass a "storage" city without offering his wares for
sale on a specified day.
FIG. 114 TYPES OF PEASANTS FROM THE VICINITY OF LOWICZ
The Peasants. In the XVIth century there was
not so much as a trace left of the independence of the
peasant and his right to self-government. The laws
limiting his freedom became more rigid, and the
punishment for flight from the jurisdiction of his mas-
ter more severe. The owner of the manor had juris-
diction over his peasants, and prescribed laws and
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 217
regulations for them; he could transfer them from
place to place; he could take away certain leased
parcels of land and give them others instead; he
prescribed the amount of free labor the peasant had
to render. There existed no state regulations as to
the number of free days the peasant was obliged to
give to his landlord, as to the number of beasts of
burden he had to bring with him to help in the work,
and as to the other duties he had to perform.
FIG. 115 POLISH MOUNTAINEERS OF ZAKOPANE, TATRA MOUNTAINS
In time the manor became an entirely independ-
ent economic unit. The peasant was obliged to buy
all his necessities of life from the landlord and was
compelled to sell all the products of his farm to the
manor. The manor also established a monopoly of
milling, bleaching and of spirits and beer production.
The landlord compelled his peasants to purchase
certain quantities of these drinks for various occa-
sions, such as marriages and christenings. Similar
conditions prevailed in church estates and crown
218 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
lands, except that in crown lands the peasant had a
right to appeal to the royal referee's court for redress.
In spite of the loss of personal liberty, dating
from 1496 in Poland and lasting longer than in the
western countries of Europe, the Polish peasant was
not a slave. He could not be sold, and he was not
deprived of legal competence, although since 1573 he
FIG. 116 A PEASANT BRIDE OF SIERADZ
was the "peculium" of his overlord. He could hold
property, both real and personal, and nobody could
deprive him of it. He had hereditary rights to his
land and could buy land from his landlord, to which
his children had hereditary claims. His rights,
however, were greatly restricted; he could not leave
the landlord except with his consent, or, as in some
places, by forfeiting a certain sum, but by law he
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION
219
remained a free man. His legal status resembled
that of minors or of women in those countries where
they are not permitted by law to enter into any
transactions without the consent of father or hus-
band. The fact that in the XVIth and XVIIth cen-
turies many peasants from foreign countries settled
FIG. 117 A PEASANT WOMAN OF LOWICZ
in Poland indicates that the lot of the peasant in
Poland was better than that of his confreres in some
of the west European countries.
The jews. The Jews in Poland had complete
autonomy in their internal affairs. In each city in
which they were allowed to live there was a special
220
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION 221
Jewish college called "Kahal," which governed the
Jewish affairs of the community. In addition they
had other colleges, such as that of neemunim to
supervise or police the community; shamaim to col-
lect taxes; gabbaim to attend to charities, and others.
The members of the colleges were elected annually
from among the taxpayers. Every year during the
great fairs at Lublin and Jaroslav the representa-
tives of the Jews from all the provinces of Poland
assembled in synods to settle the internal affairs of
the various communities and inter-communal mat-
ters; also to make joint representations to the King
and to apportion the taxes levied upon them as a
body. In time the Jewish autonomy became weaker,
and they came more under the supervision of the
woyevoda and his subordinates, but they always
retained their right to appeal to the King's court for
redress. In 1699 the King issued a special codifica-
tion of all the privileges concerning Jews and by this
document their status was clearly defined.
The Jews could not settle in the towns belonging
to the Catholic Church, and in such cities, of the
Crown #,s Warsaw, for example, whose ancient char-
ters forbade their settlement. To insure themselves
against competition, the burghers made the Jews
sign covenants limiting the scope of their pursuits.
In some cities the Jews were prohibited from leasing
real estate or handling customs and other tax collec-
tions. In those cities, however, where they had a
right to settle, they could own real estate and houses.
In the villages the Jews were subject to the jurisdic-
tion- of the landlord. On the whole, their disabilities
in Poland were comparatively few, although from the
very beginning the Jewish settlers were looked upon
with disfavor by the peasants, and were made the
subject of numerous complaints and blind vengeance,
222
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
particularly in times of economical crises or other ca-
lamities, like the Black Death of 1360. The laws of
the country were designed to protect them against
outrages and cruelties on the part of the native popu-
lation, and were effective until the time of the Catholic
reaction, when all non-Conformists, either Christian
or Jews, became ostracized and subject to the
"tumults" of the ignorant and fanatical street rabble.
As a matter of fact, the Jews suffered less than the
Protestants, and had more protection than the Chris-
tian non-Conformists.
FIG. 118 A SYNAGOGUE FOUNDED BY KING SOBIESKI AT 26LKIEV (GaliCia)
Upon joining the Catholic Church the Jews
received nobilitation and came into possession of the
golden liberties of the nobility, the highest privilege
the Republic could offer.
The liberality of the Polish law giving a wide
autonomy to the Jewish population worked against
the best interests of the Republic, as it was condu-
cive to the perpetuation of a distinct race conscious-
ness, and prevented the polonization and nationaliza-
tion of an element of the population which had be-
THE POLISH CONSTITUTION
223
come attached to the land of their adoption, where
they found homes, work and protection at a time
when they were cruelly persecuted almost every-
where else in Europe. Subsequent laws modelled
after foreign patterns, which prohibited Jews from
employing any help other than that of their corelig-
ionists, from sending their children to Polish schools,
from living outside of ghettos, and from wearing
apparel like the rest of the population, helped to
widen the gaps which the original grants of autono-
mous rule had established.
FIG. 120 BOOK COVER EMBROIDERED BY QUEEN ANNA JAGIELLON
Political
and Economic
Conditions
of the Country
in the First
Half of the
XVIIIth
Century
_ AL:
F.IG. 121 VIEW OF GDANSK,. From G. Braun's "Civitates orbis terrarum," 1491
CHAPTER XII.
The Cossack Wars
It was an almost foregone conclusion that Wlady-
slav, the older son of Zygmunt III, would succeed
his father to the throne. He was the
antithesis of the older Vasa, and was as
much loved by the people as his father
had been hated. Though of a Swedish
father and a German mother, he was a
Pole in every respect other than race.
He was sincere and openminded, cor-
dial and easy going, democratic and
sympathetic to arts and sciences, and
tolerant in matters of religious belief. It was almost
worth while to have endured Zygmunt for the com-
pensation afforded by his son. His election was a
matter of form. Unfortunately the era of anarchy
had lasted too long to allow for a speedy rectification
of conditions. Moreover, the nobles, despite their
fondness for Wladyslav, had not failed further to
restrict the King's powers. The Convocation Diet
took from him the power to declare war except for de-
fensive purposes, and ordered void all decisions which
the King might make in conjunction with the Senate
in the interim between the biennial sessions of the
Diet, irrespective of how important and urgent the
matters may have been if they were considered inimi-
cal to the interests of the nobles. In the pacta con-
225
yenta they enjoined the King from levying the chim-
ney tax and the acreage tax, the only two kinds of
taxes the nobles paid, and which amounted to a mere
bagatelle. The King was deprived of the power to
enlist foreign soldiers without the consent of the
(Portrait by Rubens)
FIG. 122 WLADYSLAV IV, 1632-1648
Senate and of th House of Deputies. The consent
of the two Houses was also made necessary for the
King's marriage. "So was accomplished the building
of the edifice of the nobles' liberties ; the royal power,
completely fettered, became a plaything in the hands
226 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
not of the nobles, but of the oligarchy of the magnates.
The small land assemblies and the "kinglets" (as the
magnates were called), leading the masses of land-
owners on the leash of their own ambitions and in-
terests, became the sureme majesty in the Republic."*
The political tendency was toward decentraliza-
tion, as at the local assemblies various convenient
measures could be more easily passed than at the
National Diet. The country became divided into a
great many entirely independent administrative
units. The provincial soldiery, paid by the local
legislatures, took the place of the national army.
Magnates, holding the local assemblies in the hollow
of their hands, accumulated immense wealth by all
sorts of injustices and extortions. Their holdings
and power became disquietingly large. Some, like
the Radziwills, owned 16 cities and 583 villages, and
kept an armed retinue 6,000 strong. The Potockis
owned 3,000,000 acres and 130,000 serfs. In national
affairs they were able to exercise a powerful influence
by direct representation in the Senate and by patron-
age among the representatives of the nobility in the
Diet. The spirit of overbearing wantonness among
the magnates was particularly strong in Lithuania
and Ukraine. The frontier lords, less disturbed by
sovereign authority and less protected from foreign
invasions, developed an attitude of haughty inde-
pendence and became intractable. It was in those
provinces particularly that the exploitation of the
peasant was most pronounced, though the peasant of
Ukraine was, thanks to the incomparable fertility
of the soil, better off economically 'than his brethren
in Poland and Lithuania. Yet, because of the lawless-
ness of his overlords and their retainers, mostly im-
* Sokolowski, loc. cit. Vol. Ill, p. 214.
THE COSSACK WARS 227
poverished Polish yeomen and squires, who differed
from him in language and religion, his lot was unen-
viable, and for this reason most of the Cossacks were
recruited from among the Ruthenians, who fled to
the Sich on the Dnieper to become free highwaymen.
In Poland proper, as all over Europe at that time, the
peasant was attached to the soil and severely ex-
ploited.
With the growth of the Polish exports of
grains the stimulus of enlarging land holdings
greatly increased. As the manors of the nobles grew
the peasants' holdings shrank proportionately, and
the amount of free labor exacted from them mounted
indefinitely. In 1633 a law was enacted whereby
every settler who lived on a nobleman's estate for a
year became his subject. The peasant in some cases
was obliged to begin labor at the age of eight, but
never later than at fifteen. He sometimes had to work
five or six days a week, giving the use of his horses
or oxen in time of harvests. There was, however, no
definite slave class in Poland, as was the case in Ger-
many and Muscovy, and the fact that German peas-
ants continued to settle in Poland even as late as the
XVITIth century constitutes sufficient proof that the
conditions of the peasants in Poland, bad as they
may have been, still were better than in the adjoining
countries.
The peasant had to buy his beasts of burden
from the landlord. The crops could not be sold in
any way except through him, and he could not buy
anything except in the store of the manor. This
strikingly resembles the "company stores" in some
of the American factory towns. The landlord had,
in addition, a monopoly of whiskey and beer sales,
flour milling, linen bleaching, and so on. Certain in-
228 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
dustrial privileges of the lord were farmed out to Jew-
ish money lenders, who became the subjects of hatred
of the exploited peasant. In addition to local duties,
the peasant had to bear many state and church bur-
dens in the form of taxes and tithes. The landowner
was the supreme judge, often unjust and cruel.
The lot of the town plebs was somewhat better,
but town life had become demoralized since the old
prosperity of the Polish towns vanished. Home rule
had been superseded by crown or local land officials,
who exacted from the population heavy contribu-
tions, in both lawful and unlawful ways. The quality
of city products deteriorated with the rigid enforce-
ment of the regulation of profits modeled after west
European legislation: the maximum profit of a Polish
merchant was put at seven per cent. ; for a foreign
merchant, five per cent. ; and for a Jew, three per cent.
The Diet went so far as to prescribe the limit of ex-
penditures and the type of dress of city people.
Many skilled artisans and merchants left the cities;
their places were taken by petty Jewish mongers and
cobblers. The rich burghers sought nobilitation. and
settled in the country. Incidentally it may be stated
that nobilitation at the time became more difficult,
the law of 1641 requiring unanimous consent of the
Diet in each case of nobilitation.
In proportion as the economic prosperity of the
cities declined their political rights became curtailed.
In the XVIIth century the city of Cracow was the
only city that had representation in the Diet. In
times of grave crises some of the other cities were
asked to send representatives. Few and unheeded
were the voices of those statesmen who pointed out
that fine cities were an embellishment for every
country, and a source of economic and national
strength.
THE COSSACK WARS
229
230 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The new King and the foremost political think-
ers of the time realized that reforms were urgently
needed. Conditions, however, over
The Entangle- w hich the Kinsr had no control, ore
ments of ,
Foreign Policy vented even the first attempts at re-
form. Prior to Wladyslav's election,
Tsar Michael Romanoff broke the truce to which he
had agreed in 1618. He anticipated a disorderly in-
terregnum, and planned to profit by it and to regain
some of the territories he had ceded to Poland. He
miscalculated, however, the extent of Polish unpre-
paredness, and paid for it by a loss of the provinces of
Seversk, Czernihov, Smolensk and a surrender of all
claims to Livonia, Esthonia and Courland. In return
Wladyslav resigned his claims to the throne of Mus-
covy. By Article IV of the treaty the King of Poland
recognized the Grand Duke Michael Fedorovich as
"Tsar of all the Muscovite Russias, without, however,
giving him any right whatever over the Ruthenias
which belong ab antique to Poland." The terms of
the Polanov peace of 1634 marks the zenith of the
achievements of the Polish sword in the east.
Synchronously with the war against Muscovy,
Poland carried on a war with Turkey. The Mus-
covite defeats and the brilliant successes of the small
Polish forces operating against the Turks under the
command of Crown Hetman Stanislav Koniecpolski
cut short the war in 1634. Poland promised to re-
strain the Cossacks and Turkey agreed to curb the
Tartars. The right of the Turkish Sultan to appoint
the Moldavian hospodars was recognized, with the
proviso, however, that the appointments be made
from a list of candidates submitted by the Polish
King.
The successful completion of the two campaigns
brought great glory to the martial King. The coun-
THE COSSACK WARS
231
try now expected a lasting peace, but a turn of cir-
cumstances favored a retaliatory war on Sweden for
the restoration of lost territories. In the year of Wla-
dyslav's election, Gustavus Adolphus perished in the
battle at Liitzen and his youthful daughter ascended
the Swedish throne. This was during the Thirty
Years' War, when the power of the Protestant forces
was beginning, temporarily, to wane, and the time
FIG. 124 STANISLAV KONIECPOLSKI, Grand Hetman of the Crown,
distinguished for his military accomplishments and
for his genius of organization
seemed to be most propitious for a war on exhausted
Sweden. To offset this possibility and to draw Po-
land into the war on the side of Sweden, Richelieu
strained every means which his ingenuity could
devise. Among other compensations he offered in
return for help against the Emperor was the long lost
232 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and wealthy province of Silesia. England and Hol-
land added the weight of their influence to bring Po-
land into line. The King, whose foreign policy was
entirely different from that of his father, and who
was, in fact, pronouncedly anti-Hapsburgian, was
inclined to side with Richelieu, but the raison d'etat
demanded immediate action against Sweden. The
Diet, however, though not sparing compliments for
the King's virtues and valor, preferred peace to any
far-reaching political schemes, and lent but a deaf ear
to the King's demands for war appropriations. With
FIG. 125 CARTOUCH WITH THE VASA EAGLE
such an attitude on the part of the knighthood no
far-reaching plans could be attempted. A temporary
agreement was made with Sweden whereby peace
was to be preserved for twenty-six years ; the Swedes
were to return all the territories which they occupied
in Prussia and the Polish vessels which they captured
on the Baltic. All towns and castles, however, which
THE COSSACK WARS 233
they occupied in Livonia, were to remain in their
hands, and the question of Wladyslav's hereditary
rights to the Swedish crown was left in abeyance.
This agreement was signed on September 12, 1635,
at Sturmdorf, and hence it is known by that name.
The unsatisfactory settlement of a situation which
contained possibilities of epochal importance illus-
trates the pettiness of the nobles of that reactionary
period, who were concerned with nothing except
good, easy living and the enjoyment of unlimited
rights. They were constantly suspecting the King
of Machiavelian designs to introduce despotism, and
were unable to rise to an understanding of any in-
volved problem of foreign policy. They were,
moreover, deprived of a sense of collective national
pride, as the following humiliating incident may well
illustrate. The King, desirous of developing new
sources of revenue, which were required for the most
fundamental needs of the state, and which the ava-
ricious gentry would not grant, proposed maritime
import duties at the Polish ports of entry. Such
duties were being levied in all the neighboring coun-
tries and in the Polish ports during Swedish occupa-
tion. After long debates the Diet finally approved
the measure. The city of Danzig, however, fearing
that such a measure might deflect trade from its
doors, refused to allow the collection of the taxes at
the port and threatened armed resistance. Wlady-
slav replied by dispatching four warships to the
recalcitrant city. The city invited Danish interven-
tion in the matter, and the Danish Admiral, having
captured the Polish war ships and torn down the
royal insignia and flags, entered the city amidst de-
monstrative ovations by the populace. Wladyslav
had a right to expect that the Diet would be stirred
234 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
with indignation over this act of rebellion and
treason, and would authorize appropriate steps
against the city. Something entirely different hap-
pened. The suspicious nobles saw in the King's act
an attempt to subjugate Danzig, to organize a power-
ful navy on the Baltic and to establish with its aid
absolutum dominium in Poland. The adjudication of
the matter in the courts was a hollow mockery and
an insult to the King and to the national honor of a
great country. The incident also frustrated the
King's efforts to build up a Polish fleet on the Baltic.
In spite of the nobles' desire for peace at any
price the country was plunged into a most bloody and
devastating war with the Cossacks,
C t- on ?i tip " s . on which, because it had the character of a
the Ukrainian . , , 1 . . 1 . .
Frontier social and religious revolution, was
thoroughly destructive, and fought with
terrific furor and rage.
Ukraine, an enormous prairie watered by the
Dnieper and its tributaries, was a country "flowing
with milk and honey." With the union of Lithuania
and Poland it came under Polish sovereignty, but its
population, because of the inaggressiveness of the
Polish character and the Uniate Church, became but
very slightly Polonized. * The growth of the power
of the palatines and the unscrupulousness of their
agents created a grave social discontent among the
Ukrainian peasants which was kept alive and nour-
ished by the church agents of Muscovy. They were
* Some historians, like Prof. Bobrzynski and others, consider the estab-
lishment of the LTniate Church prejudicial to the interests of the Polish
State. Because this Church became united with the prevailing Church, the
Polish government did nothing to encourage the establishment of Roman
Catholic churches in Ukraine and, as a consequence, thousands of the
descendants of Polish settlers became Ruthenized. Rome hoping to conquer,
eventually, Russia by means of the Uniate Church was similarly quiescent
in its activities in that region.
THE COSSACK WARS
235
236
even successful in inspiring the hitherto indifferent
Cossacks with religious fervor. The Patriarch of
Jerusalem, Theophan, sent by the Russian Tsar on a
journey through Ukraine, told the people about the
holy fire that every year on the eve of the Resurrec-
tion descends from heaven upon the tomb of the
Saviour, which is in the possession of the true Chris-
tians, i. e., those who belong to the Greek Church.
He did not fail, also, to lay strictures upon the Roman
Church, and to advise the Ukrainians to abstain from
wars upon Muscovy, whose rulers and people follow
the path of the true Church of Christ and are hated
for it by the Poles.
Frontier populations are usually hard to manage.
It is particularly so when the frontiers are extensive
and inadequately protected against the constant raids
of such nomadic half savages as had been roving on
the abutting seas and steppes. Small wonder that
constant warfare was more or less of a normal condi-
tion on the Ukrainian frontier. The southernmost
plains of Ukraine adjoining the Black Sea, known as
"Dzikie Pola" or Wild Steppes, became the habitat
of the Cossacks and the Tartars, where they could
organize their bands, and whence they could under-
take their raiding expeditions into Poland and
Turkey. By the treaty of 1634 Poland was bound to
restrain the Cossacks from such raids on the domains
of the Padishah. This implied supervision over them,
which the Cossacks resented. When the Polish Diet
voted to build a strong fortress On the first Dnieper
Cataract, near the main seat of Cossackdom, open
rebellions broke out among the Ukrainian peasants.
The fortress, known by the name of Kudak, was built
in 1635 by a French engineer, Beauplan, on the Dnie-
per, where the Russian city of Ekaterinoslav is now
THE COSSACK WARS 237
situated. Immediately upon its completion and
before a sufficient garrison was stationed in the fort
the Cossacks stormed and demolished it. This and
several other rebellions were put down by the Field
Hetman Nicholas Potocki, with the aid of one of the
Ukraine palatines, Jeremiah Wisniowiecki, an intense
foe of the Cossacks, and a man of indomitable courage
and of an adventurous character, a scion of one of the
oldest princely families of Lithuania, and owner of
extensive territories in Ukraine. In retaliation for
the rebellion, the Diet of 1638 passed a law divesting
the Cossacks of "all their old prerogatives and other
decora," and decreeing that "those of the rabble
whom the fortunes of war had spared, be turned into
peasantry." Even the "registered" or salaried Cos-
sacks who had hitherto been faithful were deprived
of the privilege to elect their own chief, whose resi-
dence city was taken and placed in charge of a Crown
official. Rebellions followed, which were subdued,
and the Kudak fortress rebuilt and strengthened. The
Cossacks sent delegates to the King and the Senate
asking for the restoration of some of their privileges
and renouncing certain others, such as the right to
elect their own Hetmans. The Senate and the Diet
were shortsighted and refused to grant any conces-
sions. The Ukrainian palatines were particularly
active in preventing any concessions being granted to
the Cossacks. It was in their interest to convert
them into serf labor. A contemporary writer, the
Bishop Piasecki of Przemysl, said that "this change
in the life of the Cossacks was a private gain and a
loss to the Republic." The oligarchy of magnates
was, however, supreme. They terrorized the King
and subordinated the public weal to their private
interests. It may be of interest to record here the fact
238 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
that it was during this period that the women of Po-
land and Lithuania for the first time in their history
collectively memorialized the Diet demanding better
protection against exploitation, and the restriction
of the rights of fathers and an enlargement of the
rights of mothers.
FIG. 126 QUEEN MARIE LOUISE de GONZAGUE
Wladyslav well realized the folly and perilous-
ness of the course adopted with reference to the Cos-
sacks. The policy of Zygmunt August and of Batory
of utilizing the Cossacks for a war with Turkey, and
befriending rather than alienating them, appealed to
THE COSSACK WARS 239
him much more. To achieve this it was necessary
first to administer a severe blow to Turkey which
had been fomenting disturbances.. Accordingly, he
began, with the aid of Hetman Koniecpolski, to or-
ganize an army, expending upon it the private for-
tune of his second wife, Marie Louise Gonzague, the
French Duchess of Mantois, and negotiated an al-
liance with Venice and the Pope, and also with the
Cossack leaders. Although the Porte was a source of
constant danger and the Tartar raids almost inces-
sant, yet because the campaign was planned by the
King without the knowledge and consent of the mag-
nates and their retainers, they voted against it in
1646, preferring, as they thought, immediate peace to
questionable political advantages in the future.
Equally unsuccessful were the King's endeavors
to bring about the organization of a special pa-
triarchate for the Ruthenian schismatics
Chmieinicki's m or d er to make them independent
1648 of either Constantinople or Moscow.
The Pope Urban VHIth objected to it,
but the Polish bishops assembled in Warsaw in 1643,
supported the King and invited all the schismatics to
a friendly conference the next year in Thorn. This
"colloquium charitativum," which made Wladyslav
famous in Europe and inspired Martin Opitz to write
a poem in honor of the King, did not bring about the
desired results. The King, busy organizing a cam-
paign against Turkey, which the new Pope, Innocent
'X, was to finance to a considerable degree, left the
matter in the hands of the Apostolic See, and failed
thereby to bring about the organization of an inde-
pendent Ruthenian Church. Owing to the above
mentioned opposition of the Senators and Deputies
the campaign against Turkey did not come to pass,
but a terrific Cossack revolution broke out under the
240 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
leadership of Bohdan Chmielnicki, a poor but ambi-
tious Polish nobleman who in his action was, to a great
extent, actuated by revenge for the outrage suffered
FIG. 127 BOHDAN CHMIELNICKI, the leader of the Cossacks
at the hands of a Crown dignitary, who abducted his
wife and burned his manor. Social and religious
causes were responsible for the uprising, which was
THE COSSACK WARS 241
not directed against the King, who was loved by the
Cossacks, but against "the magnates, the Jews and the
Jesuits." The Ukrainian peasants and the Cossacks
forced into serf labor rose almost to a man. Upon
receipt of the news of the rebellion the King dis-
patched a commission to discuss and straighten out
the differences with Chmielnicki. Before the com-
mission arrived the Polish Field Hetman sent, con-
trary to the orders of the King, a body of troops
against Chmielnicki, who were defeated by him in
two encounters. It was at that time that the brilliant
and wise Wladyslav died on May 20, 1648, during the
journey he had undertaken to pacify Ukraine by his
personal influence and intervention. - The nobles un-
justly suspected him of instigating the revolution in
order to overpower them and to deprive them of their
liberties.
The Cossack revolution was the main issue at
the pre-election Diet. There were two parties: one
led by Chancellor George Ossolinski,
was ^ or compromise with the Cossacks ;
the other, headed by Jeremiah Wisnio-
wiecki, was for a ruthless war of extermination of
the "rabble." The peace party prevailed, and a
commission was elected to carry on the negotia-
tions, but failed, first because of the unfortunate
choice of the commissioners, and second, because the
revolution had received such a momentum that it was
difficult to stem it. To make matters worse, th un-
manageable Wisniowiecki, who had an insanely in-
tense hatred of the Cossacks, organized a private and
successful expedition against them. Soon the regular
army and the militia had to be sent to support his in-
dividual endeavors, but the army was defeated, and
an immense host of infuriated Ukraine peasants
began to move into Poland. Lemberg held out
242
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
against a long siege, but finally surrendered. Chmiel-
nicki then moved on to the fortress of Zamosc, near
Lublin. The situation became very serious. In the
meantime Wladyslav's brother, Jan II Kazimir,an ex-
Cardinal and Jesuit, released from his Church vows by
FIG. 128 GEORGE OSSOLINSKI (1595-1650) GRAND HETMAN OF THE CROWN
the Pope, was elected King. Chmielnicki favored Jan
Kazimir, and upon his election resolved to withdraw
into Ukraine. Through the good offices of Adam
Kisiel,the Governor (Woyevoda) of Kieff,a Ruthenian
and a schismatic, who, from the beginning had urged
peaceful negotiations, the Cossacks obtained many
THE COSSACK WARS 243
concessions: the recognition of their independence
of anyone except the King, the restoration of
ancient privileges and the recognition of Chmielnicki
as their hetman. Their demands for the abolition of
the Church union and the banishment of the Jesuits
could not be granted. Both sides remained dissatis-
fied. The Ukrainian nobles and the magnates bit-
terly resented the action of the Diet in granting any
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 129 JAN II KAZIMIR (1648-1668)
concessions, and continued their raids upon the
despised rebels. Wisniowiecki openly defied the Diet
and the treaty with the Cossacks, and gathered forces
for further expeditions. Soon the Diet reversed
itself and sent an army to support him. "Jarema"
Wisniowiecki was elected Generalissimo of all the
forces. Chmielnicki joined hands with the Tartars,
who under the leadership of the Crimean Khan Islam
244 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
THE COSSACK WARS 245
Girey, came to drive the Polish troops out of Ukraine.
Wisniowiecki brilliantly defended the fortress of Zba-
raz on the river Gniezna, a tributary of the Sereth, in
Podolia, but the army, under the leadership of the
King, was surrounded and routed. The Cossacks
agreed to stop the revolution on condition that the
provinces of Kieff, Bratslav and Czernihov were made
into an autonomous Cossack state; that all registered
Cossacks be given equal rights and privileges with
those of the Polish nobles; that all Jesuits and Jews
be sent out of the Cossack state; that the Ruthenian
metropolitan be given a seat in the Polish senate; and
that all crown officials in the Cossack state be chosen
from among the schismatics (opponents of the
Church union). The consideration of the matter of
the abolition of the Church union they consented to
defer until the next session of the Diet. These
demands, large as they were, however, did not satisfy
the followers of Chmielnicki, and were deemed to be
insufficient, particularly since the registered Cossacks
were to be limited to but 40,000. The other tens of
thousands of Cossacks and the hundreds of thousands
of peasants who revolted against oppression and ex-
ploitation could not be forced back into their old
conditions of subjection. On the other hand, the loss
of a very large portion of Ukraine was not cherished
by the magnates, neither was the Polish clergy ready
to admit the Ruthenian metropolitan into the Senate.
In 1651 the third Cossack war began. It was carried
on with great determination on both sides. Chmiel-
nicki sought support everywhere. He declared him-
self the champion of the Greek Church in a holy war
against Rome, and brought over the Patriarch Eudox
of Antiochia to help in fanning the flames of religious
hatred. He carried on negotiations with the Tsar of
246 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Muscovy, the Hospodor of Wallachia and the Duke of
Transylvania, and declared himself the vassal of the
Sultan, who recognized him as Duke of Ukraine. The
Polish King gathered a big army, won a brilliant
three days' battle at Beresteczko on the Styr, in Vol-
hynia, and was confident of final success when the
news of a revolution of the peasantry in Poland
reached him. The agents of Chmielnicki were dis-
seminating the seeds of unrest throughout the length
and breadth of the Republic. The ground was well
prepared for a serious uprising. The peasants began
to plunder and burn the manors, and murder their
masters, whom they hated. The uprising was directed
by one Kostka Napierski, said by some to be the
illegitimate son of Wladyslav IV, and assumed dis-
quieting proportions. When the news of it reached
the nobles in camp, many of them, led by the traitors
Christopher Opalinski and Jerome Radzieyowski,
left the King, whom they bitterly disliked, and will-
fully returned home. The rebellion was soon sup-
pressed, but the victory over the Cossacks and
Tartars could not be exploited in the manner its
magnitude justified. By the terms of the new peace
agreed upon at Biala Cerkiev, in 1651, the number of
registered or state supported Cossacks was reduced
to 20,000; the self-governed Cossack territory was
limited to the Province of Kieff alone; the schismatics
were to have equal rights with the Uniates; and the
Jews were to be allowed to reside in Ukraine.
The new treaty was resented by the nobles. The
King, like his predecessor, was Accused of favoring
the Cossacks and endeavoring to accomplish a coup
d'etat with their help. The same men who aban-
doned him at Beresteczko and who made it impossible
for him to pursue the enemy were at the head of the
THE COSSACK WARS 247
malcontents. The terms of the treaty at Biala Cer-
kiev were not ratified by the Diet of 1652, which
disbanded without accomplishing anything, as a result
of the insistence of one deputy that it was unconsti-
tutional to prolong the Diet beyond the time specified
by law. This deputy, Wladyslav Sicinski, prompted
by the haughty potentate Janus Radziwill, covered
himself with the fame of Herostratus in Poland. Some
historians claim that he is unjustly regarded as the
first man to have had invoked the liberum veto. In
1637 George Lubomirski broke up the Diet by his per-
sonal opposition. Prior to that Diets were dissolved by
recalcitrant minorities. In 1607 the famous preacher
Peter Skarga was instrumental in bringing about the
disruption of the Diet because the dissidents were
given equal rights with those of Roman Catholics.
However, Sicinski's action is generally regarded as
the beginning of the cursed "liberum veto," which
proved to be a legal sanction of anarchy. The situa-
tion became grave. Chmielnicki was still in command
of an immense army and was preparing for another
invasion. A fortunate circumstance only saved Po-
land from a catastrophe at the time. Chmielnicki con-
templated establishing an independent Cossack state,
and for family reasons began a war with the Hospo-
dar of Moldavia, which ended in a marriage of the
Moldavian Princess with Chmielnicki's son. Fearing
such a strengthening of Moldavia, the two neighbor-
ing Princes of Transylvania and Wallachia joined
Poland against the Cossacks. When the Turkish
Sultan also turned against Chmielnicki truce was
established in 1653.
Finding that theTurkish Sultan could not be
relied on to the extent he anticipated, Chmielnicki
turned to the Muscovite Tsar, and offered to him his
248 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
allegiance and that of Cossackdom. By the treaty
of Pereyaslavl, in 1654, Ukraine became a part of the
Muscovite empire under the name of Little Russia.
The Cossacks received a great measure of freedom
in internal affairs, and the right to elect their own
hetmans and chiefs. The number of registered Cos-
sacks was raised to 60,000, and the church metropolis
of Kieff was left independent of the Patriarch of
Moscow. Chmielnicki's act led to an inevitable war
between Poland and Russia, lasting from 1654 to
1656. The Tsar's armies entered Lithuania and
Ukraine. The encounters were exceedingly bloody,
and the vengeance wrought on the Cossacks and
peasants was terrible. When the Tartars joined the
Poles against the Russians and the Cossacks the
country was turned into a veritable inferno. Ac-
cording to. some historians over 100,000 people were
slaughtered, 1,000 churches burned and 120 cities
razed. "Fire and sword" sw r ept the beautiful Ukraine
country and destroyed all the civilization which the
hard work of the preceding centuries had built. The
rivers of blood and destruction flowing in Ukraine
turned into a Polish "Deluge" when the Swedish
armies swooped down upon Poland from the north.
FIG. 131 HARVEST (J. Kossak pinx.)
CHAPTER XIII.
The Passing of Poland's Position as a Great Power.
The peace of Westphalia (1648) greatly enhanced
the power of Sweden by giving to her control of a con-
siderable stretch of Baltic seaboard, in-
The Causes eluding the estuaries of the Oder, Elbe
^ith l^den, an d Weser. Soon afterward Sweden,
1655-1660 desirous to emulate the prosperous com-
merce of Holland and England, pre-
pared for the extension of her control of the sea, and
plans were laid for a campaign against Poland
weakened by the bloody Cossack rebellions and the
war with Muscovy. The new Swedish King, Charles
X Gustavus, in whose favor the extravagant and philo-
sophically inclined Christine had abdicated, desired,
moreover, to dispose finally of the claims of the Po-
lish King to the Swedish throne and chose the time
when Poland was least able to defend herself against
foreign aggression. Knowing the martial qualities
of the Poles he hesitated at the opening of the hos-
tilities. The pendulum finally swung against Poland
when an outlawed Polish magnate, Jerome Radziey-
owski, went to the Swedish monarch with tales of
the hatred borne by the people against King John
Kazimir and of the great opposition party awaiting
250
only an opportunity of uniting with Sweden, and
urged that the time was most propitious for making
a triumphal entry into Poland.
Although the truce of Stumdorf was not to have
expired until 1661 and regardless of international law
and a specific agreement, the first Swed-
T r h f, Tr J! a f. " ish host under Wittemberg appeared in
of the Polish - . < T? 1 j -ICKK
Nobility the northwestern part of .Poland in looo
when the country was in the throes of
the Cossack and Russian wars. The nobility of Great
Poland assembled in camp at Uyscie, on the Netze,
under the leadership of the traitor woyewodas Chris-
topher Opalinski,of Posen,and Charles Grudzinski,of
Kalisz. In spite of the superiority of numbers and
a favorable position, the Polish army capitulated
without firing a shot and swore allegiance to Charles,
after having receiving sole'mn assurance that none of
their privileges and religious beliefs would be vio-
lated. Meanwhile, another army under the personal
leadership of the Swedish King entered Great Poland,
and a third army under General de la Gardie made its
way into Lithuania through Livonia. After the Rus-
sian troops occupied Wilno, the schismatic Lithu-
anian hetman Janus Radziwill laid down his arms at
Kiejdany, to the north of Kovno. The Swedish
armies reached Warsaw without difficulty. Later
Cracow, although bravely defended by Czarniecki,
was also forced to surrender. At the same time the
Russian troops and Chmielnicki's Cossacks took Lem-
berg and camped outside the walls of Lublin. Ap-
prised of the situation, the Elector of Brandenburg,
brother-in-law of Radziwill, entered West Prussia "to
protect it." Recalled from Ukraine, the regular army
also surrendered upon finding the whole country bow-
ing in recognition of Charles. John Kazimir, with his
wife and small court fled to Glogow in Silesia, and
THE PASSING OF POLAND 251
Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation. The
country was divided among Sweden, Russia and
Brandenburg. Soon, however, seizing the oppor-
tunity when Charles turned against the Elector of
Brandenburg, the people rose in a body and with the
aid of foreign alliances restored their national and
state existence.
When the nobles betrayed their King and sur-
rendered to Charles X they entertained the hope that
the military power of Sweden would
of h thY P Peopfe assist them in defeating the Muscovites
and Cossacks. Keen was their disap-
pointment when they found that even their own
estates and churches were not immune from plunder.
The Swedish soldiery robbed the manors, desecrated
the churches, violated the convents and outraged the
population. The cruelty of the soldiery soon brought
forth a strong reaction on the part of the Poles of all
classes. The peasants first, armed with scythes,
sickles and flails began a guerilla warfare. In Great
Poland the local armed attempts merged into a strong
movement under Christopher Zegocki, and was soon
followed by similar organizations formed in Little
Poland and Lithuania. In December, 1655, the pro-
vincial armies became united by the act of confedera-
tion. The foremost soldier of the time 'was Stefan
Czarniecki, a man of austere principles of life, of un-
impeachable honesty and deep patriotism. An im-
placable foe of the magnates and of political anarchy,
he was one of the rare types that combine an exalted
conception of civic duty with clear vision and force
of action. He was a man of genius and of excep-
tional strength of character. When the King re-
turned the confederacy was solemnly confirmed at
Lancut (in present day Galicia) and Stefan Czar-
niecki was proclaimed generalissimo of the confederate
252 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
army. The picturesque and valiant defense of Czen-
stochowa (the city famous for the miraculous image
FIG 132 HETMAN STEFAN CZARNIECKI
of the Madonna) by Kordecki, Prior to the Paulist
Abbey, supplied an additional stimulus and gave as-
THE PASSING OF POLAND 253
surance to the masses that the "Queen of the Polish
Crown" had not abandoned them. In the Cathedral
of Lemberg the King swore to alleviate the hard lot
of the peasantry who first rose in defence of their
country.
Seeingthe extent of the popular uprising, Charles
turned for help to Poland's enemies. The Elector of
Brjjjdenhurg in 1656 signed a treaty to
The Swedish support Sweden in compensation for
the ia poHsh nd which he was proclaimed independent
League ruler of the East, or Ducal Prussia, and
was promised a few districts in Great
Poland. Little Poland, Mazovia and Lithuania were
offered to Rakoczy, Duke of Transylvania, and Uk-
raine to Chmielnicki. The rest of Poland, namely,
West or Royal Prussia and Livonia, were to go to
Sweden. The allied troops ravaged the country and
defeated the Polish armies in several encounters. To
balance the Swedish alliance, John Kazimir set out to
form a counter league. Muscovy, dissatisfied with
the disposition Charles had made of the coveted Lithu-
ania and Livonia, was ready to conclude the war with
Poland and to join against Sweden. The negotiations
were prolonged, the Tsar demanding the cession of
Lithuania which hehadoccupiedand a war indemnity.
The reasons advanced by the Tsar's deputies for his
claims are so characteristic and so purely Hegelian that
they are worthy of quotation: "The war must have
been right when God gave Lithuania into the Tsar's
hands ; and what God gave, the Tsar must not return
to anybody."* They did, however, consent to the return
of Lithuania to Poland in twenty years; only White
Russia and the territories on the left bank of the
Dnieper were to. remain in the Tsar's possession. In
* Smolensk!, "Dzieje Narodu Polskiego," Warsaw, 1898, Vol. II, p. 102.
254 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
addition, they insisted on the recognition of theTsare-
vich as successor to John Kazimir. The Polish dele-
gation could not, of course, agree to this demand, so
glaringly against the constitution. They promised,
however, to bring the matter up at the next Diet with
a view of proposing the Tsar as hereditary king of
Poland. The treaty was signed at Niemieza near
Wilno, in 1656, and soon the Muscovite troops took the
field against Charles with the hope of making a per-
manent conquest of Livonia. For Poland the relief
afforded by the cessation of hostilities in the East was
of great importance. At the same time Polish di-
plomacy also scored a few additional successes. The
struggle for supremacy between France and Aus-
tria gave an opportunity of exploiting one side in
favor of Poland. Each of the two countries had
strong adherents in Poland and at the court. The
King, like his father, Zygmunt III, had pro-Austrian
attachments; the Queen, Marie Louise Gonzague, the
widow of Wladyslav IV whom John Kazimir mar-
ried, was a Frenchwoman with strong leanings to-
ward her native country and with powerful friends
in Poland. The pro-Austrian policy prevailed and not
only did the intervention of Ferdinand III expedite
the negotiations with Muscovy, but by the treaty of
Vienna (1657) Austria promised, though she did not
send, an army to defend Cracow. A few months later
Denmark also covenanted to help Poland against
Sweden as did the Tartars. The Elector of Branden-
burg, seeing the magnitude of the Polish league, in
spite of the treaty, promptly abandoned his Swedish
ally and entered into an agreement with Poland at
Wielawa (1657) by which he was released from rec-
ognizing Polish suzerainty over East Prussia. In
consideration of the two fiefs given to him, those of
THE PASSING OF POLAND 255
Bytow and Lauenberg, he agreed to send six thou-
sand men against Sweden.
So fortified, Poland threw herself with new
vigor into the fight which was exceedingly sangui-
nary because of the determination and
The Defeat of strength of the invaders. Rakoczy's
the'peace 1 !!! large Hungarian army was finally over-
oiiva, i860 powered and the Swedes driven out of
the country by the hero of the war,
Stefan Czarniecki. He pursued them as far as Den-
mark, and the feats of the Polish cavalry who twice
swam the straits to the Island of Alsen, have gained
for them lasting glory. A new outbreak of hos-
tilities with Muscovy led to an early peace with
Sweden, which was made under French mediation
and signed at Oliva near Gdansk, on May 3, 1660, and
by which Poland lost all Livonia to the north of the
River Dvina and John Kazimir renounced his heredi-
tary claims to the throne of Sweden. Thus came to
an end the long feud, which had lasted almost sixty
years.
The war with a Protestant nation and its tocsin
cry, "For our faith and our country," the excesses of
the Swedish soldiery and their desecra-
<1 ?p < i- r wth tion f Catholic churches, the success-
Fanadosm 8 ful defence of Czenstochowa and the
final defeat of the Swedes, attributed to
divine interference, the assistance afforded the Swedes
by the Protestant elements in Poland, the impending
war with orthodox Russia, and the constant danger
from Mohammedan Turkey, all contributed to the
arousing of religious fervor and fanaticism in Poland,
and to the identification, in the popular mind, of
Catholicism with patriotism. The future history of
Poland but tended to merge the two conceptions into
one. The Arians or Anti-Trinitarians, who openly
256
helped the Swedes, were the objects of particular
animus and were singled out for banishment from
the country (1658). The enforced emigration of
hundreds of the most enlightened families was a
great loss to Poland, comparable with the loss later
sustained by France in her similar intolerance of the
Huguenots. Among the Polish exiles were writers of
first magnitude, such as Zbigniew Morsztyn, Erazm
Otwinowski and Simon Budny, the last having distin-
guished himself by his masterful and critical studies
of biblical texts which outdistanced modern biblical
scholars by two centuries.
War with Muscovy, which hastened the conclu-
sion of war with Sweden, was caused by the flat re-
fusal of the spiritual and temporal lords
The Causes of of Poland to consider the Tsar's ambi-
M^vy With tions to the Polish throne and to ratify
1658-1667 the new agreement into which the Re-
public entered w r ith the Cossacks. The
Cossacks, whom Chmielnicki had placed under the
suzerainty of Muscovy, soon became dissatisfied with
the Tsar. They realized that only in Poland could
their ideals of freedom and liberty be respected, and
that the autocratic. and despotic form of the Tsar's
government was inherently inimical to them. When
Chmielnicki died in 1657 John Wyhowski, the tem-
porary hetman, proceeded immediately to arrange for
a return of the Cossacks to Polish sovereignty. On
September 16, 1658, an agreement was signed at
Hadziacz, near Poltava, by the terms of which the
Cossacks were admitted into the Polish state on the
same basis as the Lithuanians had been by the terms
of the Union of Lublin, as "the equal with the equal,
and the free with the free." The Cossacks were given
equal privileges with the nobility of Poland; had simi-
lar rights over peasants; and were free to elect their
THE PASSING OF POLAND 257
own hetmans, marshals, chancellors and other dig-
nitaries who were entitled to seats in the Polish Sen-
ate, as were their metropolitan and the diocesan bish-
ops. They were guaranteed freedom of faith and the
Uniate Church was abolished in Ukraine. Polish
political thought now soared high above the narrow-
minded spirit of a short time before and laid an equi-
table, just and solid foundation for a symbiosis of
Ukraine with Poland and Lithuania. Perceiving this,
the Tsar determined to prevent it by force of arms
and sent an unexpected expedition into Poland.
Though still at war with Sweden the Republic raised
an army large enough to deal successfully with Mus-
covy despite the fact that a section of the Cossacks
under the younger Chmielnicki fought against her.
The Polish arms triumphed in battle after battle and
after the Peace of Oliva, when the Western armies
were released, they forced the Muscovites to capitu-
late at Cudnow in Volhynia (1661). Chmielnicki
then declared for Poland. As had so often before
happened in Polish history, so now again the brilliant
military successes could not be properly exploited,
this time on account of the revolt of the unpaid armies.
The Crown troops as well as those of Lithuania
formed confederacies and refused to continue the
campaign until their wages had been paid. The
nobility, too, seeing the enemies beaten off, resolved
to discontinue hostilities and to turn their atten-
tion to the sorely needed internal reforms.
The betterment of the economic status of the
peasantry and the King's vows to that effect made in
the Cathedral of Lemberg during the
The Rebellion Swedish invasion could well be and
of Lubomirski, .. , , , . j r
1666 were disregarded, but the need of regu-
lating parliamentary procedure and of
simplifying the method of royal elections was urgent
258 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and immediate. The intrigues of the Austrian Am-
bassador Lisolfiprevented the consideration of parlia-
FIG. 133 -GEORGE LUBOMTRSKI, "The Polish Cromwell"
mentary reforms and made the matter of succession
to the throne precedent over all else. An attempt
THE PASSING OF POLAND 259
was made at preventing the impending interregnum
by electing an heir to the throne during the life of
John Kazimir, but it resulted in nothing except a
terrific political tempest which for a time made im-
possible the consideration of any other question. The
main influences at work in the matter of succession
were those of France and Austria. The Queen, aided
by Pac and John Sobieski, favored the Duke d'Eng-
hien, the son of Conde the Great. The Austrian fac-
tion was headed by George Lubomirski, marshal of
the Crown, a man of great distinction and wealth
and no less ambition. When the matter of election
was brought up at the Diet of 1661 feeling rose so
high that the King feared the disruption of the ses-
sion and recalled the subject from consideration.
After the close of the Diet both parties set to work to
gain supporters. A confederacy was organized by
George Lubomirski, called the Polish Cromwell, who,
by his demogogue-like appeals to the ignorant squires,
rallied great support for the cause of "free elections,
threatened by the French party," thus dodging the
real issue. Preparations were made for armed re-
sistance to the election of the candidate of the party
he opposed. The King brought suit against him for
conspiracy, treason and the incitement of rebellion.
The Court of the Diet, composd of the King's sup-
porters, sustained the charges and sentenced him to
infamy, loss of dignity and exile. In the eyes of the
knighthood he was a martyr of the cause of liberty,
to be supported to the utmost. Meanwhile Czar-
niecki formed another confederacy and with the aid
of Sobieski took up the defense of the country against
Muscovy. The Cossacks, encouraged by the turmoil
in Poland and prompted by a lust for plunder and
spoils began to harass Poland and Czarniecki's at-
260 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tention had to be turned to them. In the midst of all
this came the clash of Lubomirski's forces with those
of the King. The rebels threatened Warsaw and a
compromise was finally agreed upon. Lubomirski
expressed his regrets and the King promised to aban-
don his plan of bringing about an election of his
successor.
The rebellion prevented the development of suf-
ficient strength to support the loyal Cossacks. Dis-
heartened, they turned, under Doros-
f zenko, to Turkey at the time when
Mahmed IVwas getting ready for a war
with Christendom. In the face of a common danger
and harassed by internal disorders, Muscovy and Po-
land agreed to a thirteen years truce at Andrushov in
1667, by which the Tsar renounced all claims to Lithu-
ania and Livonia and Poland ceded to him Smolensk,
Siewiersk, Czernihov and the part of Ukraine on the
left bank of the Dnieper. The city of Kieff was left
in Muscovite hands for two years. These cessions to
Muscovy were considered but temporary in Poland,
and no crown offices pertaining to them were abol-
ished.
At the Diet which assembled in 1667 the King,
led by his strong-willed wife, once more brought up
the matter of succession and again pro-
The Ascending pos ed the Duke d'Enghien. The Diet,
Star of John i- i- r A i. J- J
Sobieski which in view of the impending dangers
carried through certain reforms and ap-
propriated funds to pay the army, rejected the King's
proposal although Lubomirski was no more alive.
They again expressed their preference for "free elec-
tions." Meanwhile the Turks, Tartars and Cossacks
made their appearance on the frontiers. John Sobie-
ski, then Field Hetman, met them and with small
THE PASSING OF POLAND 261
forces maintained almost wholly at his own expense,
and though battling against great odds was able by
superior strategy to stay the avalanche and compel
their retreat.
The splendor of the achievements of Sobieski en-
tirely eclipsed the waning star of trie unfortunate
John Kazimir whom the people held re-
TheAbdication sponsible for the deluge of misfortunes
of King John i 1 i j i_ < n ._ j
Kazimir, 1668 which had befallen the country during
his reign. Deprived of the sustaining
power of his remarkable wife and abandoned by
almost everybody, he lost heart and abdicated on
September 16, 1668. In a pathetic speech he warned
the country against the many existing evils, and
ended : "Wearied with age and the hardships of war,
exhausted by deliberations, oppressed by the worries
of twenty years, I, your King and father, surrender
that which the world values most highly the Crown
of this country." He stayed in Poland for another
year, then left for France where he died three years
later in the modest Abbey of St. Germain near Paris.
During the interregnum following John Kazi-
mir's abdication the alignment of the political
forces came into strong relief. The
Co-niption magnates and political leaders were di-
vided into two camps, the French and
Austrian. French gold, lavishly spent by Louis XIV,
not only in Poland but everywhere else, made corrup-
tion an almost political institution in the whole of
Europe. The vast sums spent by the late Queen in
support of the Duke d'Enghien gained a large num-
ber of influential supporters for the candidates of
France. Even those among the magnates who favored
the French party by conviction, were given boun-
tiful subsidies. The Austrian party similarly sought
262
influential support by bribing. Demoralization and
corruption became the order of the day. The great
body of electors saw what was going on and resented
the foreign candidates and the corruptive influence
which came with them into the country. At the elec-
tion field where over 80,000 men assembled, the hos-
tility of the great body of citizens toward the mag-
nates became apparent and led almost to serious
bloodshed, so intense was the opposition to the
Frenchmen and to all the other foreigners. At a
proper moment Bishop Olszowski proposed a native
candidate, the son of the famous Cossack vanquisher,
Wisniowiecki, who had become completely impover-
ished by the loss of all the great frontier estates,
forfeited by the loss of a part of Ukraine. "Long live
King Michael Wisniowiecki !" was the spontaneous
and unanimous reply (1669).
The healthy instinctive impulses of the electorate
unfortunately were ill-directed, as the new King was
weak-hearted, weak-willed and weak-
King Michael minded, and entirely under the domina-
Wisniowiecki, ^ on ^ a small coterie. Educated at the
1669-1673 Austrian court, he had strong pro-Aus-
trian leanings and married Eleanor, the
sister of Emperor Leopold I against the will of the
Senate, composed largely of French sympathizers.
Soon the French party, conniving with Louis XIV,
began to lay plans for dethroning the legally chosen
King and for elevating the young French duke, Saint-
Paul de Longueville, an adventurer par excellence.
A passionate strife ensued, characterized by rancor
and vituperation. Diet after Diet was broken up,
and not a few deputies lost their lives at the swords
of angry partisans. Chaos became general and to
THE PASSING OF POLAND 263
make matters worse an immense Crescent host ap-
peared in Poland.
When news of the election of Wisniowiecki, son
of the hated "Jarema," became known to the Cossacks
it once again awakened their animos-
The Turkish ity toward Poland. They broke the
Treaty^!* Hadziacz agreement and went over to
Buczacz, 1672 Turkey. The Cossack ally was wel-
come at the time when the Porte,
having reached the zenith of its power was planning
conquests of Austria and Poland in order to reach the
Baltic. The new Turkish danger stood in the way of
the realization of the plans of Louis XIV and of the
French party in Poland, which was spending all its
time and energy to counteract the influences of the
Austrian faction. In the capital not much thought
was given to the organization of an adequate army
to meet the Turks. Hetman Sobieski, with his
small forces was accomplishing marvels of gallantry.
He was, however, only retarding the Turkish ad-
vance, not checking it. Soon the enemy overrode
Ukraine and after a desperate defense by its small
garrison Kamenietz Podolski, the strongest Polish
frontier fortress and the key to the South, surrendered.
In spite of the proximity of the enemy and the appear-
ance of Sobieski in Warsaw and his insistence on ener-
getic action, partisanship dominated patriotism. The
Diet dissolved, nothing accomplished, and as a conse-
quence Poland found herself suing for peace under
the most humiliating terms. By the so-called Buc-
zacz Treaty, the Republic ceded to Turkey the prov-
inces of Podolia and Ukraine, paid a heavy war tax
of 80,000 thalers and promised an annual tribute of
22,500 thalers (1672).
264 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
This unprecedented humiliation was exploited
by the Austrian party, to crush the French party by
attributing to them complete blame for
Confederacy 1 tne disaster and even accusing them of
courting it with the aid of French di-
plomacy. They formed a confederacy, known as that
of Golomb, indicted the leaders of the Senate and,
as in the case of the Primate Prazmowski, deprived
some of their offices and confiscated their estates.
The confederacy had a distinct class character. It
was the expression of resentment and distrust on
the part of the rank and file squire against the
corruption and dishonesty of the rich and power-
ful lords. The Assembly of the Confederation pro-
posed to do away with life tenure of State office and
to discourage the use of the liberum veto. Three
Diet members who used this malicious device were
iridicted. There was a great deal of truth in the as-
sertions and accusations of the Golomb Confederacy.
The time, however, was not opportune for recrimina-
tions and vengeance, the more so because the struggle
threatened to develop into a civil war, for Sobieski
returning from his expeditions surrounded by glory,
organized a counter-confederacy in support of the
Primate. Through the good offices of reasonable and
clear-headed men, and also because of the death of
the Primate, the clash was prevented and steps were
taken to organize an adequate army and to repudiate
the Buczacz treaty. Austria and Muscovy were asked
to join the campaign but, as always, refused to help.
A single-handed expedition was sent against the
Turks under Sobieski and at Chocim, where fifty-two
The Victory years before, in Zygmunt Vasa's reign,
Over the Turks Chodkiewicz had checked the same en-
at Chocim, 1673 emy p ol j s h arms scor ed a splendid vic-
tory over the Porte. The Turkish army was almost
THE PASSING OF POLAND 265
entirely annihilated, and 120 mortars, 400 standards
and the entire supply store fell into Polish hands.
It was in keeping with Polish tradition that the fruits
of this victory were not fully gathered. The mer-
cenaries, not having been paid, struck, and the militia,
apprised of the death of the King who expired on
November 10, 1673, at the age of thirty-three years,
were anxious to get back home for electioneering.
The Convocation Diet assembled in Warsaw by
the middle of January and the Austrian party, fearing
the popularity of Sobieski, proposed the
sfobfeskf" 1 HI elimination of all Polish candidates at
1674-1696 the election. The measure did not go
through .and in view of the war situa-
tion money was voted for the maintenance of an army
70,000 strong, and the date of election was set for
April 20, 1674. Led by the powerful Pac family,
Lithuania stood irrevocably for the Austrian ca'n-
didate, the Duke of Lorraine, whom they had also
chosen to be the husband of the widowed Polish
queen, the sister of the Austrian Emperor. The
Duke of Neuburg was the French candidate. When
it appeared that he could not be elected, the French
party proposed John Sobieski who by his heroic deeds
had gained considerable popularity among the nobles,
although his past record as an active supporter of
Louis XIV's policies, a participant in an illegal plot
to dethrone the late King, and as a member of the
camarilla of the intriguante queen, Marie Louise
Gonzague, and of late the organizer of a counter con-
federacy in opposition to the Polish Cromwell,
weighed strongly against him. In spite of the ob-
jections of the Pacs and the Wisniowieckis he was
266
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
elected. The election was questioned by the Lithua-
nians who left the field,but two days later after recon-
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 134 JAN IIl'sOBIESKI, 1674-169G
sidering the matter, they voted to support the new
King-elect.
267
268 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Almost immediately after the election, the King
left with the army to halt a new Turkish invasion,
postponing the coronation until a later
Zoravno* c i678 date. After two years of brilliant cam-
paigning in the course of which the
Turks were thrown across the Dniester and a great
many towns (except that of Kamenetz Podolski)
were retaken, Sobieski returned to Cracow for the
coronation, and at the Diet immediately following
the ceremony asked for adequate appropriations to
continue the war. He was soon in the field again.
After the famous siege of Zoravno, where a hundred
thousand Turks in vain endeavored to surround the
small forces of the Polish King, by the aid of French
mediation, peace was established, the terms of which
superseded the Buczacz treaty. Many other advan-
tages were gained by Poland, among them the res-
toration of two-thirds of Ukraine (1676).
The Diet expected more of the martial genius
of the King and the treaty was not ratified. An ad-
ditional reason for this action on the
Dissensions P art ^ tne Diet was the suspicion en-
tertained as to the reasons that led
France to bring about the peace. It was a matter of
common knowledge that Louis XIV desired to draw
Poland into a war with his enemies, Austria and
Brandenburg, and for certain considerations Sobieski
supported the Hungarian revolutionaries and allowed
the use of Polish territory for the passage of Swedish
troops marching against Brandenburg. He even con-
templated a campaign against the Elector to regain
East Prussia. Austria was alarmed by the cessation
of Polish hostilities with Turkey, fearing that the
latter might turn against her and strained every ef-
fort to gain sufficient support in the Diet against the
King's plans. She was ably seconded by Branden-
THE PASSING OF POLAND 269
burg and the Pope, Innocent XI, who desired to see
Poland in a league against Turkey, and who issued in-
structions to the Polish clergy advising them to work
in that direction. Their endeavors were not in vain.
The suspicious, ill-informed, ignorant and presump-
tuous country squires assumed the same attitude to-
ward the King as they had done in Wladyslav's days
and thwarted the realization of large plans, based on
the possibilities of a European conflict. They again
prevented the country from gaining the last chance to
become an important factor in European politics, to
which she was entitled by her magnitude and posi-
tion. Seeing the pettiness of the thoughtless mob,
which held supreme power in the State, Sobieski
conceived the idea of effecting a coup d'etat, which
alone could have saved the country from decadence.
He informed Louis XIV that he intended putting a
stop to anarchy and introducing absolute govern-
ment in Poland, and asked his support in the matter.
To his disappointment, the egotistic French mon-
arch replied that he saw no advantage to himself in
the proposed scheme. Left unsupported, Sobieski
submitted to the pacifist measures of the Diet, which
reduced the army from thirty to twelve thousand
men. His attentioa was soon again turned to Tur-
key and Muscovy.
In spite of the failure of the Polish Diet to ratify
the treaty of Zoravno, Turkey did not resume hos-
tilities, having meanwhile engaged
The Alliance Muscovy in a war over the control of
with Austria, T T1 . r^* j t , i
March 1683 Ukraine. I he war was crowned by the
treaty of Bakchiseray (Crimea) in 1681,
according to which the part of Ukraine to the east of
the Dnieper was to remain in the Tsar's hands, but the
western part of Ukraine, which the Andrushov agree-
ment of 1667 guaranteed to Poland, was to be divided
270 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
between Turkey and Poland and a desert maintained
between the Dnieper and the Boh to separate the
possessions of the two nations. Poland could not
consent to sharing Ukraine with Turkey, and the
King, disappointed with the Diet and with Louis
XIV, to whom also his beloved wife, Marie Casimir,
took a sudden dislike because he refused to grant a
ducal title to her father, Marquis d'Arquien, turned
to Austria. The alliance with Austria was based on
a community of interests and on account of this it
gave assurances of sincerity of purpose and firmness.
It was, moreover, a realization of the idea of the Sa-
cred League against the Infidel. Early in 1683 Aus-
tria and Poland finally concluded a treaty for defen-
sive and offensive purposes, by which, among other
things, the Emperor promised to raise an army of
sixty thousand, to contribute 200,000 gold coins to the
Polish war treasury and to interfere at Madrid for the
repayment of the so-called "Neapolitan sums" which
Queen Bona, the wife of Zygmunt I, loaned to Spain
and which were never returned to Poland, in spite of
many representations. The Polish King covenanted
to raise an army of forty thousand and agreed not to
conclude a separate peace with Turkey. In case of a
siege of either Vienna or Cracow the allies agreed to
send relief expeditions and the monarch present with
the allied troops in the field should be in command of
the united forces.
Very soon after the alliance was established
an immense host approached Vienna under the
leadership of the gifted Grand Vizier
Kara Mustafa. The Imperial army
under the Duke of Lorraine could not
stem the rapid Turkish advance. The Emperor, who
fled the capital, had sent imploring messages, one after
another, to Sobieski. On the 15th of July, 1683, the
THE PASSING OF POLAND
271
investment of Vienna was complete and a regular
siege begun. Desirous of arriving in time, Sobieski
made hasty preparations and not waiting for the
Lithuanian armv and the Cossacks, left in forced
(J. Kossak pinx.)
FIG. 136 KING SOBIESKI AT THE GATES OF VIENNA, 1683
marches toward Vienna. On September 7th he
joined the Austrian forces and assumed supreme com-
mand over the allied army which comprised Bavarian
and Saxon troops also. On the 12th the famous
272
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
battle took place, directed by the Polish King in per-
son. The course of the battle is a matter of record.
The right wing of the allied army, comprised of the
Polish winged hussars and other types of Polish horse
for which the country has been famous, saved the day.
FIG. 137 THE ARMOR WORN BY SOBIESKI DURING THE
BATTLE OF VIENNA
The backbone of the Turkish army was broken. The
Vizier fled with the remnants of his host and the
green standard of the Prophet and all supplies and
munitions fell into the hands of the Christian sol-
THE PASSING OF POLAND 273
diers. Kara Mustafa was pursued into Hungary by
Sobieski, who, because of the lack of support on the
part of the Allies, suffered a reverse which was, how-
ever, promptly compensated by another victory. The
heroic achievements of Sobieski and his army brought
to him and his country everlasting fame and praise
for the saving of European civilization and Christian-
ity from destruction by a powerful and ruthless
enemy who was determined to conquer Europe. It
brought, however, no political advantage to Poland.
Leopold and his court very soon became cold to their
saviors and forgot the services rendered. It seems
almost incredible that the army which saved Austria
from destruction should have been treated as they
were only a few days after the battle of Vienna.
Forage was refused to the horses, and other petty
difficulties put in the way. After having pursued the
Turks into Hungary and having cleared a consider-
able part of the country of them, Sobieski returned to
Poland.
Austria did not keep the tacit agreement made
with the Polish King of giving the Austrian Arch-
duchess Marie Antoinette in marriage
The Holy to his son James. She also prevented
League hj s marriage to Princess Radziwill,
Turkey daughter of Boguslav, who was heir to
immense riches in Lithuania and who
subsequently became the bride of Louis Hohenzollern,
the Elector of Brandenburg. This marriage was
the cause of a great political tempest as the Hohen-
zollerns thus came into possession of very large es-
tates and a number of cities in Lithuania. Anxious
to insure regal station for his children and to crush
the Porte forever Sobieski, in spite of his disquieting
experiences with Austria, joined the Holy League
against Turkey, the Emperor having given assur-
274 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
ances that Moldavia and Wallachia would be given to
James Sobieski, the King's son. The expedition into
Wallachia was unsuccessful and to obtain the aid of
Muscovy the Polish King made a sacrificing agree-
ment with that country which had only a short time
before proven treacherous and unreliable. By this
new agreement of 1686 known by the name of the
Polish commissioner, Grzymultowski, Poland, for the
support against Turkey and for a compensation of a
million and a half roubles, forever ceded Ukraine to
the east of the Dnieper and the important City of
Kieff on the western shore. The cession of the ter-
ritories was an irreparable loss to Poland. She was
deprived of her predominant position and influence
in the East, and her command over the Cossacks, and
was cut off from the Black Sea which became the
foundation for the growth of the Muscovite Empire.
The political ideas of Batory and Wladyslav IV were
forever abandoned. Moreover, neither Muscovy nor
Austria kept their promises. The Wallachian ex-
peditions carried on single-handed were unsuccessful
and finally abandoned in 1691.
The constant internal dissensions caused and
nourished by foreign intrigues were in no mean
measure responsible for the King's fail-
Political ures in his final campaigns and in his
SobYe'sk^s ai diplomacy. They resulted in the loss
Death, 1696 of territory and the decline of Poland's
position as a great European power.
French and Austrian money supported Polish anar-
chy. Diets were constantly torn up, some even
before the presiding officer could be elected. No law
could be enacted. Corruption was rampant. Sev-
eral attempts were made to depose the King. Re-
ligious intolerance became intensified and the first
and last auto da fe in Poland was executed in 1689, on
THE PASSING OF POLAND 275
one Casimir Lyszczynski for his atheistic procliv-
ities. The country became a theatre of constant
strife between the various magnate families. At
times the clashes resulted in formal civil wars, as was
the case in the feud between the Sapiehas and the
Bishop of Wilno. With the death of Sobieski on June
17, 1696, ended the glory of old Poland. He was the
only man. says Prof. Sokolowski, who if he could not
revive the country, could at least prevent Poland's
speedy destruction. But "blindness and evil passion
destroyed the last salvation plank and then begins the
slow death of a powerful organism."
FIG. 138 GENERAL VIEW OF SANDOMIR
From Georg Braun's "Civltates Orbis Terrarum," 1491.
The Election
of August of
Saxony, 1697
CHAPTER XIV.
The Disintegration of Political Sovereignty.
The election following Sobieski's death was the
last that was free. Subsequent elections were held
at the point of foreign bayonets. The
debasement into which political moral-
ity had fallen at that period everywhere
in Europe received its echo in Poland.
Sordid haggling and corruption took possession of
Polish political life under mischievous foreign in-
fluence. All past glory and lofty tradition were for-
gotten, and the country was given over to the per-
sonal rapacity of the magnates and the intrigues of
foreign monarchs. James Sobieski was the candidate
of the Austrian party, bitterly opposed by his mother,
who favored the Elector of Bavaria, her son-in-law.
The French candidate was the Duke Frangois Louis
de Conti. The family jealousies of the Polish mag-
nates prevented the election of Sobieski; Conti's good
chances were spoiled by the sudden decision of the
Court of Versailles not to spend any more funds for
the election; and so Saxon gold, supported by Rus-
sian influence, carried the day. The dissolute, intern-
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 277
perate and sly Elector of Saxony, August the Strong,
having become a Catholic, mounted the throne of
Poland as King August II, in 1697, although the
Primate declared the French candidate to have been
legally chosen. August was a man possessed of a
strong will and of great political ambitions. Poland
was to serve his designs. Heir to despotic traditions,
he planned to turn her into a hereditary domain of
his house.
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 139 AUGUST II (1697-1733)
In the pacta conventa he promised to bring
Ukraine and Podolia, with the fortress of Kamenetz,
back to Poland. Soon after the elec-
The Close of tion he determined upon and prose-
with^Turkey, cuted a war with Turkey as the first
1698 step in the seeming fulfillment of his
promises. The conflict was not long
drawn out, for the Porte, after a series of long and dis-
278 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
astrous wars with Sobieski and Austria was exhausted.
The allied forces of Poland and Saxony, under Field
Hetman Felix Potocki, won a brilliant victory at Pod-
hayce in 1698, which hastened the conclusion of the
peace at Karlowice, b)^ the terms of which Austria
received Transylvania and Hungary as far as the
Save; Azov was ceded to Russia; and Ukraine and
Podolia with Kamenetz came back to Poland. Po-
land in return, abandoned all claims to Wallachia and
Moldavia. This peace marks the end of hostilities
between Poland and Turkey. The growth of Russia
made them natural allies, in opposition to the dis-
quieting growth of the colossus in the East.
An alliance with Russia was, however, within the
political machinations of the Saxon Elector. He
schemed to take advantage of Charles
The Beginning XII, the youthful King of Sweden, and
Northern War, to wrest Swedish Livonia from him.
1700-1721 Accordingly he entered into a secret
treaty with Peter of Russia for a divi-
sion of the Swedish Baltic littoral, a Swedish traitor
by the name of Patkul being the chief agent in carry-
ing out the negotiations. August was able to draw
into the league the Danish King Frederick IV and later
the Elector of Brandenburg, who, with the consent
of the perfidious Polish king, crowned himself in
Konigsberg as King in Prussia on January 18, 1701,
although his sovereignty extended only over East
Prussia. West or Royal Prussia was then still an
integral part of Poland. When the Polish Diet voted
its opposition to a war with Sweden, August decided
to carry it on with his Saxon troops which very soon
invaded Lithuania. Protests were made against the
presence of Saxon soldiery in Poland, but in the
private war that was being waged between the power-
ful magnates, the Sapiehas and the Oginskis, the
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 279
cunning King found a pretext for the unlawful sta-
tioning of his troops in Lithuania. The Oginskis had
formed a confederacy for the protection of the rights
of the nobility against the iniquities of the Sapieha
"kinglets." The Saxon troops, under Field Marshal
Flemming, were dispatched to Lithuania ostensibly
to protect the nobles against the oppression of the
Sapiehas, whom the King hated because of their
power, but in reality to be near the frontier ready for
an attack on Sweden. Soon they fired the first shot
which started the great Northern War, lasting from
1700 to .1721. But to the allied powers, how disap-
pointing were the opening chapters of that venture!
In a few months Denmark was defeated and con-
cluded a separate peace at Travendal (1700). Peter's
army, five times as large as that of Charles, was routed
at Narva on the Gulf of Finland and put to a most
ignominious flight. The Saxons were defeated at
Riga and compelled to retire, hotly pursued by the
Swedes, who occupied Courland and entered Lithu-
ania. The Diet w r hich assembled in Warsaw, to the
unpleasant surprise of the King and his Russian ally,
demanded the withdrawal of Saxon troops from Po-
land and the cessation of hostilities with Sweden, and
protested against the recognition of the Elector of
Brandenburg as King in Prussia. Charles sent a re-
quest to the Polish government for the dethrone-
ment of August. No immediate reply, however, was
given to the demand of Charles, except that he
respect the neutrality of the country. When the
latter insisted on the dethronement of August and
occupied Warsaw, war became inevitable. In the
confusion that followed the conquests of the Swedish
army in Poland, no unity of action could be expected.
Great Poland was against the King, while Little Po-
280
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
land and Lithuania remained loyal to him. A con-
federacy of loyalists was formed at Sandomir, and a
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 140 STANISL.AV LESZCZYSSKI (1704-1710)
protest formulated against the breaking of the peace
of Oliva by the Swedes. August called a Diet at
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 281
Lublin, which demanded certain guarantees from the
King and voted appropriations for a large army of
defense. Still the treacherous King sued for peace,
offering to Sweden the provinces of Courland and
Livonia.
Charles, however, refused to consider peace
and insisted that August be deposed. Pressed
by him, Great Poland formed its own
The Election confederacy at Warsaw against the
i70** S an y $ic 1 ' King who was conniving with foreign
Civil War enemies against the country. * A few
months later the ruler was declared de-
prived of his royal office (1704). Charles favored the
election of James Sobieski, but when August's agents
apprehended him and his brother, and Alexander, the
youngest of King Sobieski's sons, refused to be a can-
didate, the Swedish King proposed Stanislav Lesz-
czynski, the woyevoda of Posen, who was elected by
a small assembly of the nobility. The Sandomir Con-
federacy, supported by the Tsar of Muscovy, refused
to recognize the new King, and as a result a civil war
ensued, fought in the interest of foreign monarchs
and leading to the practical disappearance of Polish
sovereignty w T hich became divided between Charles
on one hand and Peter on the other, the latter having
assumed the role of protector of the opponents of the
Uniate Church.
After a series of defeats at the hands of the
Swedes, August fled to Dresden, but soon Saxony was
overrun by the armies of Charles, and
Abdication b August w r as forced to sign the peace
AugiSt ii"i706 of Altranstaedt in 1706. He surren-
dered his right to the Polish throne in
favor of Leszczynski and released the two Sobieskis.
Austria, Brandenburg, Holland and England recog-
282 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
nized the new Polish King, but the Sandomir Confed-
eracy was less tractable. Aided by Russian troops,
they waged a bitter war against the Leszczynski fac-
tion and the Swedish army. The country was laid
waste and neither the Swedish nor the Muscovite
armies showed consideration for the native popula-
tion. Peter, ostensibly protecting the opponents of
the Uniate Church, persecuted the adherents of that
church in a most cruel manner, and unceremoniously
interfered in the internal affairs of Lithuania and
Little Poland, hoping to pave the way for his son as
the next King of Poland.
Having disposed of the Saxon Elector, Charles
turned his attention to the last adversary and soon
cleared Poland of all traces of Musco-
The Russian vite occupation. He planned to push his
SiTfiatfie of d campaign northward, and reached Smo-
Poitava, 1709 lensk after a series of triumphant bat-
tles; but, persuaded by Mazepa, the last
elective hetman of the Cossacks, who promised the
support of Ukraine and large supplies of food and am-
munition, he turned southward to free the Cossacks
from the domination of the Tsar. The Polish King
was apprised of Mazepa's plans and favored the new
opportunity of bringing the Cossacks back to Poland.
The campaign rashly undertaken ended disastrously
for Charles. A part of his army did not reach him in
time; the winter in Ukraine was extremely severe;
the ill-provided army suffered intensely, becoming
considerably attenuated; and Mazepa failed to arouse
Cossack support for the venture. Surrounded at Pol-
tava by an immense Muscovite host and wounded,
Charles barely escaped to Turkey under the care of
Stanislav Poniatowski, and the remnant of his army
capitulated (1709).
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 283
The Swedish disaster tolled the death knell of
Leszczynski's reign. Immediately after the battle
of Poltava, the Tsar and August moved
T^ , into Poland. Hetman Adam Sieniaw-
Withdrawal of , . r . . , ,.
Leszczynski, ski, one of the most rabid opponents ot
1710 King Stanislav, joined hands with Peter.
Only a part of the Polish army remained
loyal to Leszczynski, who, seeing that the matter
could not be settled amicably as the opposition did not
wish to have his case adjudged by the Diet, and try-
ing to avoid further bloodshed, withdrew into
Sweden. Meanwhile August renewed his treaty
with Peter and offered him the much coveted Livonia.
He also withdrew his abdication, claiming that it was
exacted under duress and quoting the Polish statute
of 1669, which prohibited abdications. The Diet of
1710 proceeded according to the dictation of the Tsar
and reaffirmed the kingship of August. The Diet
also granted freedom of faith to the communicants of
the Greek Church. Peter demanded that he be made
the guarantor of their rights, and in this wise received
legal sanction for his meddling in the internal affairs
of the country.
Charles, however, did not resign his plans. With
the aid of Stanislav Poniatowski, one of his warmest
friends, he was able to prevail upon
Russian inter- Turkey to start a new war on Muscovy.
vention in , J , . . , . . ., , r
Poland When the lurkish campaign failed m
171.1, Leszczynski begged the Swedish
King to give up the war. Moreover, internal dissen-
sions in Sweden compelled him to postpone further
action at that time, and Peter was left unhampered to
do in Poland as he pleased. He drafted a hundred
thousand Polish recruits into his army, exacted heavy
284 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
contributions from the population, arrested and exe-
cuted many of the Uniate clergy and planned for the
eventual extension of his sovereignty over the whole
of Poland. These designs led him to oppose the
realization of August's plans for a partition of Poland.
The latter hoped by this means to add a portion of the
country to his Saxon patrimony. For help in carry-
ing out his designs, August planned to cede West or
Royal Prussia to Frederick. When halted by Peter
he tried another expedient.
Under the pretext-^ of fear of a Turkish invasion,
August kept his Saxon troops in Poland in the hope
that their insolent behavior might
ms-rm War> cause a revolution, which he expected
to quell and then to change the form
of government to suit his plans. The Saxon provo-
cation caused, indeed, an armed uprising under the
leadership of Stanislav Ledochowski, during which
the country was turned into a barren waste. Every-
thing that had survived former wars was destroyed
in this civil strife. Agriculture, commerce and in-
dustry came to a standstill. Peaceful inhabitants
turned into bands of brigands. Cities were depopu-
lated. Cracow could count only ten thousand in-
habitants. The unfortunate ancient city of Kalisz,
which in the XVIIth century had been the centre of
cloth manufacture with a large and prosperous popu-
lation, was demolished during this war. Violence,
rape, murder and plunder ruled supreme. August
was unable to crush the revolution he had fomented
and accepted Peter's offer of mediation. The
eighteen thousand men Peter sent into Poland en-
abled Prince Dolgorookey to bring about an agree-
ment (1716).
The treaty of Warsaw, as the agreement was
called, abolished the existing confederacies and pro-
hibited future formation of such organi-
Dumt^Diet zations ; the Saxon troops were ordered
1717 withdrawn from Poland within twenty-
five days' time; the authority of the
hetmans was reduced to military matters only; the
administration of the army was entrusted to the sub-
division of the Treasury Department; the regular
army was reduced to twenty-four thousand men,
eighteen thousand in the Crown and six thousand in
Lithuania; the tenure of state offices was reduced to
two years and the duties revised; and finally, the
building of new dissident churches was prohibited.
The Diet of 1717 approved without discussion all the
measures and dissolved six hours after its opening.
It is known in Polish history as the first "Dumb"
Diet. The Tsar became the guarantor of the laws
and did not withdraw his troops from Poland which
he considered a conquered territory. Almost all
of the measures approved by the "Dumb" Diet
were harmful, particularly the diminution of the
army to a number entirely inadequate for the de-
fense of the country, surrounded as it was by military
powers with large and modern armies.
Soon the Tsar an$ the Prussian King made
an agreement in Berlin (1719) to act jointly in
Polish affairs and to prevent any re-
irTtoferance forms which would tend to strengthen
the Republic. August's plan to form an
alliance with Austria and England against Russia
and Prussia was frustrated by the shrewd political
moves of the ambassadors of the two latter countries.
The ignorant and fanatical nobility did not realize the
gravity of the situation and by their religious intol-
erance, inculcated and nourished by the Jesuits,
286 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
afforded opportunities for foreign powers to interfere
in Polish internal affairs. In 1718 the Diet excluded
one of its deputies because he was a Protestant, and
in 1733 the dissenters were deprived of civic and po-
litical rights. The intolerance of that period, not as
rabid, perhaps, as in other countries, was alacriously
taken advantage of for Russian and Prussian in-
terference which eventually led to the dismember-
ment of the country. The first step in that direction
was made by Peter at the close of the Northern War
when Livonia became a part of the Russian Empire.
Realizing that it would be impossible to make
Poland a hereditary monarchy, August endeavored
at least to prepare the ground for his
Se C "Thiee f son's succession. The marriage of
Black Eagles" Leszczynski's daughter to King Louis
De d ath"f?3 S 3' S XV of France, in 1724, spoiled his de-
signs, for it gave a powerful support to
the exiled King. He then conceived the plan of with-
drawing his son's candidacy to the Polish throne and
of enlisting French influence against the Pragmatic
Sanction of Charles VI of Austria in the hope that his
son who was married to the daughter of Emperor
Joseph I, might press his claims to Austrian succes-
sion. The Court of Vienna, apprised of this move,
approached the Russo-Prussian alliance and the union
of the "three black eagles" came to pass in 1732, by
which the three monarchs pledged to use their in-
fluence against the election of either Leszczynski or
the son of the Saxon Elector and to resist any attempt
at reforms in Poland. This union led the perfidious
August to suggest once more to Prussia and Austria
that Poland be dismembered, one part to become a
hereditary part of his Saxon patrimony. In the
midst of negotiations he died on February 1, 1733, in
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 287
Warsaw, whither he had gone to attend the session
of the Diet.
By the nature of things, the interregnum follow-
ing the death of August could be nothing but tur-
bulent. The majority of the electors
had become convinced that only a native
King should sit on the throne and fa-
vored the banished Stanislav Leszczyn-
ski, who was spending his life in retire-
ment and study. The most powerful magnate fami-
lies with Theodore Potocki, the Primate at the head,
The Interreg-
num, 1733-1735,
and the Second
Election of '
Leszczynski
FIG. 141 A SOUVENIR MEDAL OF THE ELECTION OF LESZCZYtfSYI IN 1733
indorsed his candidacy and practically excluded
everybody else. At the .>n field the great as-
sembly of citizens, with a unanimity seldom known in
Poland, elected Leszczynski on September 12, 1733,
and the Primate officially announced His election, in
spite of the threatening declaration made by Aus-
tria and Russia that they would not consent to recog-
nize him. Counting on personal gains Prince Wis-
niowiecki, the Great Chancellor of Lithuania, and
Theodore Lubomirski, the Woyevoda of Cracow, to-
gether with the Bishops of Posen and Cracow, with-
288 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
drew with a small band of six thousand of their re-
tainers to the suburb of Warsaw on the right bank
of the Vistula, and upon the arrival of Russian troops
elected the son of the late King August.
Although the union of the black eagles excluded
also the Saxon candidate who was a son-in-law of the
(J. Mateyko)
FIG. 142 AUGUST III (1733-1763)
Austrian Emperor, yet the enticing of-
ferenc n and ter " ^ ers ^ e ma( ^ e to Russia and Austria won
August in their consent. The inducement offered
to Austria was his renunciation of all
claims to Austrian succession and a promise to re-
spect the Pragmatic Sanction; and to Russia, he
promised Courland for Ernest Biron, the lover of
Empress Anna. Under the protection of Russian
and Saxon arms, August III was crowned in Cracow,
on January 17, 1734.
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 289
Leszczynski, the legally chosen King, withdrew
with his supporters to Danzig, pursued by the Rus-
sian army. The Russian Field Mar-
Confederac W s k a ^ Miinnich threatened to destroy the
1734 CC beleaguered city and to butcher all in-
fants for the resistance offered by their
fathers. The unfortunate Leszczynski fled to Kon-
igsberg, but the war between the two factions lasted
for two years. The magnate Adam Tarlo became
the marshal of the general confederacy which was
organized in 1734 at Dzikow in defense of King Stani-
slav. The failure of SwederrpTtlrkey and France to
send support against Russia and Saxony made
August's position^ strong in spite of the fact that
France declared. war against Austria, nominally for
the Polish succession (1733-1738) but de facto in her
own interests. In 1735 the Confederacy suffered a
defeat and the King was forced to leave the country.
He abdicated the throne and France made him the
Duke of the newly acquired province of Lorraine
which he ruled wisely and intelligently until his
death in 1766.
The Diet of 1736 was forced to recognize the new
King and to consent to the cession of Courland to
Russia after the death of the last Duke
nSl^ne^and of the ^ ouse of Kettler. This was the
His Times only Diet that had not been broken up
during the twenty-eight years of Au-
gust Ill's reign which is marked by a most crass and
abject degradation of all life values moral, social,
political and scientific. Servility took the place of
patriotism; all respect for law and order disappeared
and the wantonness of magnates held full sway.
Even tribunals hitherto respected were put under
the thumb of the local potentates. The magnates
openly carried on negotiations with foreign sover-
290 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
eigns and received subsidies for services rendered;
the government ceased to be able to exercise any of
its functions and to be a factor in European politics.
Foreign governments interfered in Polish affairs
and fostered anarchy to retain excuses for their in-
terference. Neither Russia nor Prussia or Austria
respected her sovereignty or her boundaries. They
sent their armies through Poland whenever it suited
their plans and at times even resorted to recruiting
in Poland to replenish their forces.
Exhausted by constant civil wars, the country
was in a desperate condition of poverty. The lot of
the Polish peasant grew worse and the amount of un-
paid labor he was obliged to render to his overlord
increased. Ignorance and fanaticism reigned su-
preme. The number of convents, cloisters and mon-
asteries multiplied immensely. The beautiful litera-
ture of the Golden Age almost disappeared. Silly,
mediaeval stories, astrology and the lives of the saints
took its place. Separated from the West by the war-
rent and devastated German states, Poland was de-
prived of the refreshing scientific currents from
France, Italy and England. * The former custom of
sending Polish youth to Western universities was re-
placed by pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre or to less
remote places of religious worship. "In the contem-
porary intellectual movement of the West," says
Smolenski, "Poland took no part; she did not even
adopt its most significant achievements. The great
discoveries of Keppler, Galileo, Newton, Pascal and
Torricelli in astronomy and physics were as foreign to
her as were the philosophical ideas of Bacon, Des-
cartes, Locke and Leibnitz. Ignorance closed the
eyes of the people to a realization of the gravity of
their situation. Men of wisdom and thought, who
could look critically at public affairs, had to conceal
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 291
their opinions lest they be indicted for heresy or as-
sault upon the liberty of the nobles . . . Without
being aware of the causes of the evil and the means
for remedying them, the nation was rolling into the
abyss of ruin." * But the inexhaustible spiritual re-
sources of the Polish nation were not crushed by this
trying period. Like Phoenix from the ashes they
suddenly arose again to life and asserted themselves
with vigor toward the close of the century, during the
Four-Years' Diet, when Poland again took place be-
no. 143 THE ZALUSKI PUBLIC LIBRARY AT WARSAW, Opened to the public
in 1748 with 200,000 volumes donated by Bishop Joseph Zaluski. The
whole collection was later removed from Warsaw to St.
Petersburg by the order of Empress Catherine.
side France as a center whence progress and regen-
eration spread over Europe.
The middle of the XVIIIth century saw the
awakening of Polish thought. During his candidacy
the philosophically inclined Stanislav
Th f In d e p e i" Leszczynski published a pamphlet on
cai Awakening" the need of political reforms, which did
not go entirely unheeded. He enthused
a number of younger men who went abroad to study.
*Loc. cit. Vol. II, pp. 159-160.
292
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
In subsequent years his court at Nancy was the seat
of art and learning, whence modern thought and ideas
radiated into Poland and found numerous adepts
among the magnates, constantly vying with each other
for power and influence. Among other influential
FIG. 144 ELIZABETH DRU2BACKA (1695-1765)
The First Polish Woman Writer.
publicists of the time were the two brothers Zaluski,
Andrew and Joseph, both bishops, who, in 1746,
founded the first well equipped public library in War-
saw. Stanislav Poniatowski and a few others also
published pamphlets on the need of political reform.
It is noteworthy that in this dark period of Polish
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 293
intellectual life a strong stimulus to the literary
awakening came from a woman. The writings of
Elizabeth Druzbacka soared high above the sordid-
ness of her contemporary environment and blazed a
new trail for Polish literature. She, in a measure,
cleared the Polish language of foreign influences and
of hybrid expressions.
FIG. 145 STANISLAV KONARSKI (1700-1733), Patriot, Educator and Jurist
The greatest influence, however, was wielded by
Stanislav Konarski a highly gifted and patriotic priest
who, upon his return from abroad after
years of study, established the famous
"Collegium Nobilium," where modern
subjects and modern methods of instruction were in-
294 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
troduced. Scholasticism was banished and science,
astronomy, mathematics, history and modern lan-
guages took its place. In addition to imparting
knowledge, Konarski strove to inculcate patriotism
and sound civic ideas in the minds of his students.
With him began the intellectual and political awak-
ening of Poland which found expression in the Con-
stitution of May 3, 179.1, and in the monumental scien-
tific works of the close of the XVIIIth and of the
XlXth centuries. He wrote a great deal on political
and social problems and fearlessly exposed the dan-
gers of the existing system and particularly the
wretched "liberum veto," which, to the nobility, was
the pearl of tneir liberties. Single-handed, he under-
took the Herculean task of codifying all the laws of
Poland, begining with those of Kazimir the Great
and carrying them through to the end. His "Vol-
umina legum," prefaced by a learned dissertation on
the origin and sources of law, became subsequently
recognized as the official handbook for the use of the
courts, diets and other state offices. The college
founded by Konarski and its success invited imita-
tion, and a number of old schools were modernized or
new ones established. The revival of thought became
noticeable all over the country and it did not fail soon
to transmute itself into action.'
The two leading and most enlightened Polish
families, those of Potocki and of Czartoryski, under-
took to put into life the reforms advo-
Par e ti?s ef rm cated b y the poetical thinkers of the
time. Unfortunately, an element of
family pride underlay the splendid motives of the two
parties, and prevented concerted action. Each strove
for individual distinction and adopted different ways
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 295
of carrying out their programs. The strife of the
two political factions formed by the two families con-
stitutes the political history of the reign of the
thoughtless and slothful August III. The Potockis,
firm supporters of Leszczynski, formed a party known
as the Patriotic or National Party; the Czartoryski
party was generally known as the "Family." The
National Party aimed at the transformation of the
Republic into a strong state; the other of reforming
the government by securing a firm "family" hold
upon it. The first party sought alliances with France,
Sweden and Turkey; the second relied on Russia for
support in the accomplishment of their plans. August
III was an ally of Russia to whom he was indebted
for his election as King. Accordingly he offered no
protest when Russian armies passed through Poland
during the Russo-Turkish war (1737-1739), and, in
compliance with his pre-election promise, gave
Courland to Biron, protege of the Russian Empress,
after the death of Duke Ferdinand Kettler (1737).
The National Party protested and took steps to or-
ganize an armed confederacy. Agreeing with the
King's Russian policy, and having at their command
the most important State offices, the "Family" Party
was able to frustrate the plans of their opponents by
dissolving the Diet. They were unsuccessful, however,
in their attempts.'to induce the Republic to take part
in the war of the Austrian succession, during which
Frederick the Great wrested from Maria Theresa the
ancient Polish province of Silesia. The Russians de-
feated the Saxons, and with the aid of the "Family"
the Polish King endeavored to equip a large army
and to draw Poland into the war. By preventing any
of the Diets to come to pass the opposition rendered
action impossible. Internal disorder, characterizing
the Saxon rule in Poland, reached its apogee at about
296
this time. Charged with designs of turning the
country into a monarchy, the "Family" Party began
to lose its sway, particularly after its unsavory deal-
ings in disposing of the estates of the heavily in-
debted Prince Sanguszko at Ostrog became known
and raised a tide of public indignation and contempt.
Soon the "Family" was relegated to the role of the
opposition. Realizing that their chances of regain-
ing influence were slim, the Czartoryskis turned for
support to neighboring nations, especially to
Russia. The time was particularly propitious, as a
member of the "Family," the elegant and young
Stanislav August Poniatowski, as Ambassador to
Russia, gained influence at St. Petersburg because of
his love affairs with the wife of the heir to the throne.
In 1762 the old Empress Elizabeth died, and Cath-
erine II, having quickly disposed of her half-idiotic
husband, Peter III, ascended the throne of Russia.
The "Family" gathered forces for the purpose of
overturning the government and introducing the
planned reforms. The National party was ready to
resist them by force of arms, and a civil war was im-
pending when the news came of the sudden death of
August III, on October 5, 1763.
In spite of the fact that, owing to the exhaustion
caused by the Seven Years' War, there was less dis-
position on the part of the neighbors
The of Poland to interfere in her internal
E?e S ctSnf al affairs, this chance was not grasped by
May 7, 1784 the political leaders of the time, more in-
terested in a realization of their individ-
ual ambitions than in the destiny of their country. The
Patriotic party favored the son of the deceased King.
He died, however, before the election, and the leader of
the party, Hetman John Clement Branicki, became the
candidate. The Czartoryskis had prepared them-
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 297
selves thoroughly for the convocation diet and the
election which they sought to postpone as long as pos-
sible. Russia was to be their chief supporter and she
began by paying eighty thousand roubles to the in-
terrex, the Primate Wladyslav Lubienski, for defer-
ring the election until May. The local assemblies
became busy places of pre-election activity. Support
was bought by intrigue, bribe and promise; the recal-
citrant members were disposed of by thugs hired by
the "Family" or by Russian soldiers brought over to
intimidate the opposition. To the convocation diet
the two parties came armed to the teeth. Branicki
and Radziwill brought considerable forces of the
Crown and Lithuanian troops; the "Family" invited
Russia to garrison the city; and the royal palace
and convention hall were guarded by the private
militia of the Czartoryskis. The atmosphere was
not particularly conducive to an amicable settle-
ment. The opposition, immediately after the open-
ing of the session, declared that in view of the pres-
ence of the Russian troops in the capital no Diet
would be held. Despite the pressure brought to bear
upon the Chairman of the Diet by the "Family" he
refused to continue the session until freedom from
military intervention was restored. The opposition
broke up the Diet and withdrew. The Czartoryskis
did not relish the idea of going through another
costly pre-election campaign, and resorted to the
flagrantly illegal measure of continuing a dissolved
Diet and of deciding the various issues by a majority
vote. Their i^rogram of reforms was well considered
and far-reaching, but could be adopted only in part as
both Prussia and Russia declared that they would
not tolerate the abolition of the "liberum veto" and
some other reforms. The measures adopted related
to the simplification of parliamentary procedure, the
298
abolition of the oath binding deputies to follow the
instructions of the local assemblies they represented,
the creation of executive committees in matters re-
lating to the State Treasury and the Army,
changes in the judiciary, the protection of cities
against the wilfulness of the nobility, and improve-
ment of the methods of taxation, particularly of im-
port duties, and the limitation of the power of the
nobles in judicial rights over the peasants. They
legalized proxy representations at elections, and ex-
cluded foreigners from candidacy to the Polish
throne. Henceforth, only a Polish noble, Roman
Catholic in faith, could be elected. They also recog-
nized the imperial title of the Russian monarchs,
which former Diets had refused to do, as well as the
royal title of the Elector of Brandenburg, and con-
firmed the cession of Courland to Biron. The op-
positon declared all the laws passed by the "Family"
Diet not binding, and left the capital. They were
punished by a loss of all offices held by them, and
their supporters were pursued by the Russian troops
sent against them. The "Family" did not hesitate to
adopt most radical measures against their opponents,
many of whom, like Branicki and Radziwill, went
abroad. Their estates were sequestered. Thus far
everything had gone well for the Czartoryskis, but
their first disappointment came when the Russian
Empress expressed a wish to see her former lover
Poniatowski, rather than Prince August Czartoryski,
on the Polish throne. The Czartoryskis had to re-
spect her wish, but at the election at which Stanislav
August Poniatowski, then thirty-two years old, was
elected King of Poland, only five thousand electors
were present. In the pacta conventa he swore to re-
spect the laws of the nation, the privileges of the no-
bility, the enactments of the convocation diet, and to
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 299
establish a military school for the nobles. Contrary
to the time-honored custom, his coronation took place
FIG. 146 STANISLAV AUGUST PONIATOWSKI (1764-1795)
in Warsaw and not in Cracow, on November 25, 1764,
on the name's-day of the Russian Empress.
300 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The new King, son of the Castellan of Cracow
and the Princess Constance Czartoryska, was a man
of broad but superficial education, re-
Stanisiav fined tastes, considerable ability, good
Poniatowski, breeding, soft manners, but of weak
1764-1795 character. He was well-intentioned,
but had no strong moral principles, was
vain, egotistic and effeminate. He took great pride
in receiving the Order of the Prussian Black Eagle
from "so great a man" as Frederick the Second, felt
no impropriety in receiving a regular salary from
Catherine, whom he extolled as "the great Empress"
and whose love made him "the happiest of men."
The perspicacious Empress well knew his sentimental
and feeble character, and decided to make him a tool
in carrying out political plans, laid jointly by her and
her friend Frederick of Prussia. It was the King in
Prussia who protested most vigorously against the
Empress giving her consent to the abolition of the
"liberum veto" when the new King asked for it be-
fore the coronation Diet assembled.
At this Diet the Czartoryskis clearly realized
that the support Russia had given them was not
meant to benefit Poland, but only to af-
The .Reforms f orc j a n opportunity for interference in
"Family" internal affairs. The Russian Ambas-
sador proposed an alliance for offensive
and defensive purposes, and informed the assembly
that should such an alliance be made the Empress
would consent to the increase of the Polish army
from twenty-four thousand, set by the Dumb Diet of
1717, to fifty thousand. He proposed a rectification
of the Russo-Polish frontier which would have given
a considerable stretch of territory to Russia, and the
restoration of certain rights to the dissidents. The
Prussian Ambassador took occasion at this time to
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 301
inform the Diet that his sovereign regarded the con-
templated tariff reform with disfavor. The Diet
realized that the increase in the army was greatly
needed, but that an alliance with Russia .for offensive
purposes would be detrimental to Poland, making her
a vassal of Russia and leading to unnecessary wars.
Accordipgly, they informed the Empress that an al-
liance for defensive purposes would be agreeable, but
no common cause could be made with Russia for pur-
poses of foreign aggression. They also informed
Catherine that the privileges she requested for the
"dissidents" could not be granted. The Prussian
Ambassador was asked to state to his sovereign that
the matter of taxation was an internal matter and his
interference with reference to it was resented.
As a result of these bold expressions by the Diet,
the Czartoryskis lost standing in St. Petersburg, and
the Russian Ambassador received in-
Russian in- structions to work against them and to
tngue against , ,. MM
the "Family" revival the former anarchy by all avail-
able means. It was not very difficult to
foment trouble at, that time when the great body of
people was hostile to the high-handed methods of the
"Family" and to the person of the foppish King,
elected by a handful of paid retainers under the pro-
tection of the troops of his former paramour, who
paid his debts, .financed his election campaign and
carried him on her annual payroll. Despite the fact
that the King, in the words of the Russian Ambas-
sador, "considered the Russian interests as his own,"
he nevertheless tried to remedy some of the ills of his
native country. At the Diet of 1766 he again intro-
duced a measure aimed at the restriction of the li-
berum veto, and the adoption of the principles of a
majority vote. This gave an opportunity to Repnin,
the Russian Ambassador, to start his campaign
302 . THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
against the King and the "Family." He declared
that the Empress would never consent to the majority
vote because "such a basis for law enactment could
not be reconciled with the freedom of the nation."
The measure failed of passage and the seeds of dis-
cord sown by Russian and Prussian agents soon bore
fruit. With the aid of the unspeakable Gabriel
Podoski, a priest soon afterwards made Primate as a
prize for the services rendered to Russia, Repnin or-
ganized a confederacy at Radom, ostensibly with the
purpose of overthrowing the King and his party.
Russia feared the "Family, ' not the King. They
knew he was a man without character, with whom
they could do as they pleased. It was easier, how-
ever, to form the Confederacy under this slogan. The
coarse and shallow Prin.ce Charles Radziwill, who
had fled after Poniatowski's election and whose
large estates had been sequestered by Russia, was
asked to become the Marshal of the Confederacy.
For the return of his estates he promised to do every-
thing the Empress might demand of him. A Russian
agent was assigned to guide this scion of a proud and
ancient family in his abject servility to a foreign
sovereign.
When the Confederacy was organized a large
Russian army arrived at Radom, and then Repnin de-
manded of the surprised and dumb-
The Radom founded Confederates an expression of
Confederacy, . T ^. ,-. . ,
1767 loyalty to King Jroniatowski, for the
dissenters equal rights with Roman
Catholics and required the recognition of the Russian
Empress as the guarantor of the cardinal laws of the
Republic. Russian bayonets exacted an acquiesence
in all of the demands of Repnin. At the confedera-
tion Diet, held with the King's approval in October,
1767, Repnin presented his program, which in-
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 303
eluded the abolition of all the disabilities of the dis-
sidents, a new constitution and an alliance with Rus-
sia. When a strong opposition arose, Repnin, to
facilitate matters, demanded the appointment of a
commission with power to act. This project was
vigorously opposed by Kayetan Soltyk, the Bishop
of Cracow, Joseph Zaluski, the Bishop of Kieff, the
Field Hetman Watslav Rzewuski and his son Severin.
All of them were arrested by Repnin's soldiers and
taken to Kaluga in Russia. The outrage committed
caused a storm of indignation. After it had quieted
down and the assembly had satisfied itself by sending
a deputation with a request for release of theJgfc*
captive senators, business was resumed and Repnin
was able to prevail upon the Diet to appoint a com-
mission to work out jointly with him the new con-
stitution.
The new instrument assured to the dissidents
religious and political rights equal to those enjoyed
by the Roman Catholics. It may be of
interest to note that the total number of
1768 dissidents, that is, Protestants and ad-
herents of the Uniate Church in whose
behalf that magnanimous Russian sovereign pleaded
so vigorously, was at the time, in Poland, somewhat
over a million, or eight per cent, of the population of
the Republic. With only one exception the proposed
constitution abolished all the reforms of the Convoca-
tion Diet of 1764,and retained the free elections, the
unanimity of decision in almost all matters of impor-
tance, the liberum veto and the prerogatives of the
nobility. The hetmans were elevated to senatorial
dignity and Russia became the guarantor of the Con-
stitution. All these provisions were adopted by the
Diet without any discussion, and with but one lotfd
voice of protest, that of Joseph Wybicki. This was
304
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the only demonstration of hostility and resentment
by the assembled poltroons, for whom personal
safety was superior to honor and the fate of their
country.
FIG. 147 JOSEPH WYBICKI, Soldier and Patriot
The true expression of the outraged feelings of
those who saw the iniquitous designs of Russia and
resolved to save the country from the
The Bar slavery into which a part of the nobility
Confederacy, - 7 . 11 . ir i_ r i
1768-1772 was willing to engulf her tor personal
profit or preferment, can be found in the
Confederacy which was organized "pro religione et
libertate" at the town of Bar, on the Dniester, in
Podolia, chiefly by the middle class gentry under the
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 305
leadership of Bishop Adam Krasinski, his brother
Michael and the elderly, but still fiery and active,
Joseph Pulaski and his three sons, one of whom,
Kazimir, subsequently became the distinguished
hero of the American War for Independence. The
highly patriotic and exalted movement of protest and
resentment was so elemental and spontaneous that it
(J. Styka)
FIG. 148 KAZIMIR PULASKI, Soldier and Patriot,
Hero of the American Revolution, Died in the Battle of Savannah
lacked sufficient organization and planning. The
Confederates had such faith in their holy cause and
were so certain of universal support that they neg-
lected making the necessary preparations before
hoisting the flag in defense of their country and its lib-
erties and religion against foreign agression. When
306 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the news of the formation of the Confederacy reached
the King and the Senate they decided to persuade the
leaders to abandon the venture and at the same time
to apprise the Russian Ambassador of it and request
his support if need be. The impetuous and shrewd
Repnin did not wait for the result of the conferences
of the King's envoy with the Confederates, but gath-
ered his army and requested the aid of the Polish
crown troops in his campaign against the insurgents.
Francis Xavier Brahicki led the Polish crown regi-
ments which joined the Russians and took by assault
the towns of Bar and Berdychov. The Confederates
were forced to withdraw, and in their retreat were
harassed by the Cossacks and Ukranian peasants
who, incited by their priests and the agents of the
Russian government, burned and sacked defenseless
towns and manors and murdered the people sparing
neither women nor children. The frontier free-
booters and brigands, known as haydamaks, again
laid waste the country which had been rebuilt and re-
stored laboriously after the devastating Cossack wars.
Wantonly and cruelly they pillaged and massacred.
The carnage in the city of Human is one of the most
revolting chapters in the history of that province,
rife as it is, with bloodshed and destruction.
In spite of lack of organization, internal dis-
sensions, checks and defeats, the Confederacy gained
increasing support all over the country, not only
among the lower strata of society but among the
magnates as well, who at first had carefully stayed
away. A butcher, by the name of Morawski, the
shoemaker Szczygiel, and a Cossack Sawa Calinski,
distinguished themselves by their valor and devotion,
as did the saintly monk, Father Mark Jandolowicz,
who formed a special brotherhood of the Knights of
the Holy Cross. The managing board of the Con-
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 307
(Sculpture by Kazimlr Chodzifiski)
FIG. 149 MONUMENT ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
AT WASHINGTON IN MEMORY OF PULASKI
308 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
federacy, or its general staff, was unable to unify the
direct movement adequately. The brilliant achieve-
ments of Kazimir Pulaski, Zaremba, Dierzanowski
and of Dumouriez, sent by France, were in vain be-
cause of the lack of coherence and unity in the direct-
ing body, the majority of whom consisted, by this
time, of magnates who desired to overthrow the
King. This policy was unfortunate because when
the wavering King and the "Fam'ily" were ready to
join the Confederacy, the treacherous Primate Podo-
ski, acting in behalf of the Russian Government, in-
sisted upon the dethronement, and in this way all
chance of a united action against Russia was frus-
trated. The King was forced back upon Russia, where
he again sought support, and France, which during the
ministry of Choiseul had supported the Confederates
with money and experienced officers, became some-
what alienated when the Governing Board refused to
join hands with the King. The other and most faith-
ful foreign ally of the Confederacy was Turkey which
declared war against Russia in 1768, giving as its cause
the illegal activities of that government in Poland.
Unfortunately for trie Confederacy, the Turkish army
was no match for tfie Russian naval and land forces
under Admiral Orloff and General Rumiantseff. The
successes of Russia cooled the Austrian sympathies
for the Confederates. In 1767 Maria Theresa was
ready to send her troops to free Poland and the King
from the outrages and insults of Repnin. She was
prevented from doing so by Frederick of Prussia, who
threatened war if she carried out her plans. Her
heir, Joseph II, did not share her' views. Back in
3769 he had conferred with Frederick with reference
to Poland. The next year they again met at Neu-
stadt in Moravia. As a result of this conference Aus-
tria, under the pretext of the necessity of rectifica-
DISINTEGRATION OF POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY 309
tion of her frontiers, wrested away a considerable
part of the Province of Cracow, and Prussian troops
occupied West Prussia up to Great Poland in order
"to establish quarantine against plague" which Fred-
erick "feared" could be carried into his domains. At
the end of the year Frederick sent his brother to St.
Petersburg to negotiate the first partition of Poland.
FIG. 150 ST. LEONARD'S CRYPT IN
THE CATHEDRAL OF CRACOW
FIG. 151 THE CASTLE OF TYNIEC ON THE VISTULA
CHAPTER XV.
The Three Partitions
At the conferences which Frederick the Great
held with Marie Theresa's heir at Nissa in 1769 and at
Neustadt in 1770, the Russian victories
over the Turks and their possible conse-
Partition, , . r . , . . .
August 5, 1772 quences were discussed, rredenck
feared Russian aggrandizement in the
South. It was to his interest to preserve a strong
Porte which could be advantageously utilized in the
event of a Prussian war either with Russia or Austria.
Despite the recent enmity between Prussia and
Austria, by a deft presentation to the future Austrian
sovereign of the dangers to which the Holy Roman
Empire would be exposed by Russia's conquest of
Moldavia and Wallachia, he easily won the acquies-
cence of the young and vainglorious Joseph II in his
selfish scheme of protecting Turkey in the possession
of Moldavia and compensating Russia with territories
in Poland. Such an arrangement was doubly advan-
tageous, for it checked Russ;a in the south and by
upsetting the existing balance of political influence it
opened the way for Prussian and Austrian claims to
similar shares of the Polish Republic, Frederick's
THE THREE PARTITIONS 311
plan was well thought out, and its accomplishment
would have enabled him to secure the much coveted
West or Royal Prussia without cost. He was deter-
mined to carry the scheme through. His brother's
mission at the Russian capital in 1770 had been to
secure Catherine's consent to it, but the Russian Em-
press and her advisors, Panin and Chernishev did not
cherish the idea -of sharing Poland with other powers.
To all intents and purposes Catherine was already
mistress of the country. This condition served to
intrench Maria Theresa in her adverse attitude to
the scheme. The Austrian Empress had been op-
posed to the dismemberment of Poland and for that
reason supported the Bar Confederacy, giving shelter
to the General Board of that organization. In 1771
Maria Theresa approached Turkey and made an al-
liance with the Ottomans for the recohquest of Mol-
davia, with a further joint agreement to insist upon
the territorial integrity of Poland. The plans alarmed
Russia, and, fearing the strengthening of the alliance
by the entry of Prussia, she submitted to the insist-
ence of Frederick and agreed to cede Moldavia in
return for a share in the partition of Poland. This
caused Austria to retrace her steps. On February
19, 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in
Vienna. A previous agreement between Prussia and
Russia had been made in St. Petersburg on February
6, 1772. Early in August the Russian, Prussian and
Austrian troop's simultaneously entered Poland and
occupied the provinces agreed upon among them-
selves. On August 5, 1772, the occupation manifesto
was issued, much to the consternation of a country
too exhausted by the heroic endeavors of the Bar
Confederacy to offer further resistance.
312 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The regiments of the Bar Confederacy, whose
executive board had been forced to leave Austria after
that country joined the Prusso-Rus-
e B ^" d sian conspiracy, did not lay down their
Confederacy arms. Every fortress in their com-
mand held out to the very last round of
ammunition and the last ounce of food. Famous was
the defence of Tyniec, which lasted until the end of
March, 1773, and also that of Czenstochowa com-
manded by Pulaski. Cracow fell on April 28th, cap-
tured by the Russian general Suvorov who exiled the
heroic garrison to Siberia. Neither France nor Eng-
land, upon whom such great hopes had been based,
helped in a sufficient measure or protested when the
greatest crime in modern times was committed. So
came to a tragic end the noble but ill-organized at-
tempt of patriotic Poland to save itself from foreign
aggression. It had cost about a hundred thousand
men and once more laid the unfortunate country
waste, but in the words of Professor Sokolowski, "it
was the first demonstration of the reviving national
conscience, the first armed protest before the eyes of
Europe against outrage and unheard-of oppression."*
The dismemberment treaty was ratified by its
signatories on September 22, 1772. Frederick was
elated with his success; Kaunitz was
Pf oud . of wresting as large a share as he
and Austria did, with the rich salt mines of Bochnia
and Wieliczka; and Catherine "never
signed a diplomatic document with greater satisfac-
tion." By this "diplomatic document" Russia came
into possession of that section of Livonia which had
still remained in Polish hands, and of White Russia
embracing the counties of Vitebsk, Polotsk and
Mscislav; Prussia took Warmia and West Prussia
* 1. c. vol. Ill, p. 418.
THE THREE PARTITIONS
313
314 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
as far as the Netze and embracing the county of
Pomerania, without the city of Danzig, the counties
of Malborg, Chelmno, without the City of Thorn, and
some districts in Great Poland; and to Austria fell
Zator and Oswiecim, part of Little Poland embracing
parts of the counties of Cracow and Sandomir and a
great portion of Ruthenia, in other words, the whole
of Galicia, less the City of Cracow. By this partition
Poland lost about thirty per cent, of her territory,
amounting at that time to about 484,000 square
miles, and about four million of her people. The
largest share of the spoils, as far as population and
revenue were concerned, went to Austria.
After having occupied their respective terri-
tories, in brazen arrogance, the three robber govern-
ments demanded that the King and the
The Diet Diet approve their action. The King
of 1773 and , , rixr T-
the Treaty appealed to the nations of Western JLu-
of Cession rope for help and tarried with the convo-
cation of the Diet. When, as usual, no
help was forthcoming and the armies of the com-
bined enemies occupied Warsaw to compel by force of
arms the calling of the assembly, no alternative could
be chosen save passive submission to their will. Those
of the senators who advised against this desperate
step were, after the well-known Russian fashion, ar-
rested and exiled to Siberia by the representatives of
the Tsarina. The local land assemblies refused to
elect Deputies to the Diet, and after great difficulties
less than half of the regular number of representa-
tives came to attend the session, most of them men of
degraded character, led by Adam Lodzia Poninski,
the commander of the Malta Order, a cynic and notori-
ous gambler, willing to undertake anything for
money. In order to prevent the disruption of the
Diet and the defeat of the purpose of the despoilers he
THE THREE PARTITIONS 315
undertook to turn the regular Diet into a Diet of
a Confederacy, where majority rule prevailed. In
spite of the dramatic efforts of Thaddeus Reytan,
Samuel Korsak and others to prevent it, the deed
was accomplished with the aid of Michael Radziwill
and the dishonorable Bishops Mlodzieyowski, Mas-
salski, and Ostrowski, who occupied high posi-
tions of State and who were ready to sell their country
and honor for Russian gold. The Diet elected a com-
mittee of thirty to deal with the various matters pre-
sented. On September 18, 1773, the Committee for-
mally signed the treaty of cession, renouncing all
claims of Poland to the territories taken from her.
While the committee was still in session the news
reached Poland that Pope Clement XIV had dis-
solved the Order of the Jesuits. The
The First j av mem b ers of the Committee argued
of Education ^ or the retention of the Order in Poland,
in Europe the ecclesiastical members for its dis-
solution. The opinion of the ecclesias-
tics prevailed, and with it came the question of the
disposition of the properties of the Order and of the
organization of popular education which had hitherto
been, with such disastrous effect, in the hands of the
Jesuits. It was voted that the government take over
all the Jesuit schools and apply the income from the
Jesuit estates to educational purposes. A special
commission known as the Educational Commission
was created to take charge of the schools of the
country. In this manner education was secularized
and the first State Board of Education in Europe was
established. In spite of the fact that more than half
of the Jesuit estates, worth over forty million Polish
guldens, was stolen by the members of the Parlia-
mentary Committee of Thirty, which with such light
heart had subscribed to the act of foreign spoliation,
316
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
enough was left to put the schools of the country on
an adequate basis. The Commission had broad
powers and set about its work in a most enthusiastic
and competent manner. Among its moving spirits
were some of the most enlightened men of the time,
such as Hugo Kollontay, from whom Thomas Paine
FIG. 152 HUGO KOLLONTAY (1750-1812)
Statesman, Educator and Historian
received many of his ideas on education; John
Sniadecki, a mathematician of great renown; Stan-
islav Staszyc, the foremost political thinker of the
time, and many others. Some of the most prominent
men of Europe were consulted on various matters,
and many, like Dupont de Nemours and others, visited
THE THREE PARTITIONS 317
Poland as advisers and remained as university in-
structors. The scope of the work of the Commission
was immense. They organized and modernized the
whole range of schools, beginning with the village
parochial school and extending to the universities. A
modern astronomical observatory was built at Cra-
FIG. 153 JAN SNIADECKI (1756-1830)
Rector of the University of Wilno, mathematician, author of a monumental work
on "Physico-Mathematical Geography of the Earth" and precursor
of Auguste Comte in philosophy.
cow; a well equipped chemical laboratory was es-
tablished; and a school of surgery was opened, where
human cadavers were used for instruction. At the
University of Wilno the astronomical department
was enriched by new instruments of precision, and
chairs were established for the teaching of natural
318
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
history, chemistry and anatomy. Andrew Sniadecki,
brother of John, author of a celebrated work on the
"Theory of Organic Beings," taught chemistry and
medicine, Jundzill botany and Joachim Lelewel
history. Other sciences found equally remarkable
exponents at the University of Wilno.
A school of engineering, a conservatory of music
and an institute for the deaf and dumb were founded.
A special council, known as the Society for Element-
FIG. 154-
HALL, OP THE UNIVERSITY OF WILNO
ary Education, whose task it was to prepare suitable
text-books, was created. The Commission trained
teachers and vigorously fought all the obstacles
thrown in its way by old modish folk who resented the
reforms and the secularization of instruction. The
Jesuits and low, ignorant clergy obstructed the prog-
ress of the work with the persistence of fanatics.
Despite all the difficulties the Commission accom-
plished a great work, raised the standard of the edu-
cation of the people,-and gave stimulus to regenera-
THE THREE PARTITIONS 319
tion of science, literature and civic righteousness.
The brilliant achievements of the movement may
serve as one of the many extant proofs that the nation
was sound and healthy and that its political depravity
was limited to those elements of reaction whom
France was able to drown in the mighty tide of the
Revolution and whom the newly born American
nation expelled from its midst. The large numbers
of active workers throughout the land and the hearty
support given by the nation to the labors of reform,
crowned as they were with marked success, testify to
the fact that below, what Mickiewicz later called, the
"cold dirty lava" burned a fire of new life which even
a century of calamities and disappointments could not
extinguish. Hampered by foreign intervention Po-
land could not, like France and the United States, rid
itself of this hardened crust of "dirty lava." The
political corruptionists and reactionaries were in a
positon to carry on their wicked work.
In addition to the act of bestowing princely
titles upon their ringleaders, such as Poninski, Mas-
salski, Xavier Branicki, and approving
The Changes those given by the Emperor to the
stitutio^and Lubomirskis, Sulkowskis and Jablonow-
the Permanent skis, the above mentioned parliamentary
Council committee t made certain changes in the
constitution of the State. The various
labors of that committee which lasted for two years,
were finally submitted to the Confederation Diet on
March 27, 1775. Attempts were again made to pro-
test against the highhanded actions of the committee
which signed the act of cession, but were of no avail.
The consitutional changes made by the committee
brought the country back to the political framework
adopted at Repnin's command by the Second Dumb
Diet in 1768, with but four modifications. The first
320 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
concerned the limitation of the rights of dissidents, to
which the Russian Ambassador made no vigorous
objections. The matter had already been made use
of to intrench Russian influence in Poland, and a new
constitutional departure in that respect gave Russia
but another opportunity to interfere on behalf of the
oppressed dissenters should her interests demand it.
The other new features in the constitution specified
that only a Polish nobleman holding property within
the boundaries of the Republic could become King,
and that sons and grandsons of a King might mount
the PolisKThrone only after two successive reigns had
terminated since the death of the royal father or
grandfather. The constitution also provided for a
Permanent Council to take charge of the administra-
tion of the country. The Council was to consist of
thirty-six members, eighteen Senators and eighteen
Deputies, elected by ballot every two years by the
Diet. The King was president of the Council which
was subdivided into five departments: foreign affairs,
police, war, justice and treasury. Corresponding
ministers headed the respective departments and had
special counsellors assigned to them. The decisions
of the departments were subject to the approval of the
majority of the Council. By this arrangement the
King was stripped of every semblance of power.
Henceforth he could do nothing without the consent
of the Council and appointments to the various State
offices could be made by; him only from among the
candidates presented by the Council. The power of
the hetmans was similarly reduced. The army was
increased to thirty thousand, new indirect taxes were
introduced, and salaries were paid to the executive
officers of the government. The Russian Empress
became the guarantor of the Constitution.
THE THREE PARTITIONS 321
The new constitution, although it retained the
vicious old principles of liberum veto, free royal elec-
tions, and similar impractical measures,
The contained, nevertheless,many useful pro-
improvement v i s i ons . j t created a strong centralized
in Economic . . j i 1
and Social government with a considerable army at
Conditions its disposal to enable it to carry out its
provisions. In spite of the fact that the
members of the Permanent Council were all subservi-
ent' to Russia and ready to obey the Russian minister
in every respect, and although they farmed out to them-
selves various State and municipal monopolies bring-
ing millions in income, and voted for themselves im-
mense life pensions, yet they were successful in re-
storing order in the country, in raising taxes, paying
the civil and military officers and in stimulating indus-
try, agriculture and commerce. After the first parti-
tion, the Republic still occupied an area of 344,000
square miles, and had a population of seven and a half
millions. Previous anarchy and guerilla warfare had
brought industry and farming almost to a standstill.
Alongside of those who insanely squandered fortunes
in the orgies of gambling, debauchery and gaiety, there
were those who saw the paramount need of the eco-
nomic upbuilding of the country. Encouraged by the
government, many magnates and burghers invested
their money in factories, and industrial and financial
enterprises. Most active in this respect was Anthony
Tyzenhaus, a wealthy Lithuanian potentate, who
built cloth, linen and paper mills and who played an
important part in the industrial reorganization then
taking place. The King established a porcelain fac-
tory near Warsaw and a steel plant in the iron region.
In four years the export trade of the country rose
from twenty-two to one hundred and ten million.
New roads and waterways were built and the old ones
322 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
improved. The nobility of the County of Brest-Litev-
ski undertook, at its own expense, the draining of the
Polesie swamps and built the highways of Pinsk-
Slonim and Pinsk-Volhynia. Many a river was cleared
and deepened and made fit for navigation. At the
private expense of the Lithuanian Grand Hetman
Prince Michael Kazimir Oginski, a canal, known until
this day by his name, was dug, connecting the river
FIG. 155 ANTHONY TYZENHAUZ
Magnate and Patron of Industries
Szczara, a tributary of the Niemen, with Jasiolda, a
tributary of the Pripet, and thus was established a
direct route between the Baltic and the Black Seas.
A similar waterway, known as the Royal Canal, was
built by uniting the river Pina, a tributary of the
Pripet, with the river Muchawiec, flowing into the
Bug. General prosperity increased.' Crops were
good and in order to improve the farming methods
and increase their productivity, many magnates
THE THREE PARTITIONS 323
undertook extensive reforms and liberated their peas-
ants. Numerous writers, mostly of physiocratic
convictions, pointed out the need of such reforms, but
the great mass of the landed gentry was in determined
opposition to them, and entertained their old attitude
of contempt toward the peasants and burghers. In
1776 the Lithuanian cities were deprived of autonomy
and the project of Andrew Zamoyski, aiming at the
removal of certain disabilities and the imposition of
certain duties on the clergy, was publicly cut to pieces,
to the great satisfaction of Stackelberg, the Russian
Ambassador at Warsaw, who maintained that the
measure advocated by Zamoyski was contrary to the
liberties guaranteed by Russia.
Simultaneously with the economic awakening of
the country came the revival of science, literature and
art, fostered by the magnates and par-
J he . ticularly by the King. His palace was
Renaissance , ., 1 i j t. 1
in Art and equipped with physical and chemical
Science laboratories, an astronomical observa-
tory, a rare library of old and new
works, a numismatic collection and a splendid art gal-
lery. From abroad he brought a number of highly
skilled craftsmen, artists and sculptors, among whom
Bacciarelli and Lebrun should especially be men-
tioned. The greatest minds and masters of the time
met at his famous "Thursday dinners" where scien-
tific, artistic and political subjects and ideas were pre-
sented and discussed in their academic as well as
practical aspects. The King was keenly interested
in the application of scientific discoveries to practical
ends. The application of electricity to human therapy,
vaccination against smallpox, aerial navigation in
balloons, the lightning rod and other discoveries
of the time had in him an ardent admirer and cham-
324
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 156 TYPE OF A POLISH GENTLEMAN OF THE END OF THE XVIII
AND BEGINNING OF XIX CENTURY
THE THREE PARTITIONS 325
FIG. 1-57 TYPE OF A POLISH LADY OF THE END OF THE XVIII
AND BEGINNING OF XIX CENTURY
326
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
pion. It was due to his inspiration that Bishop Adam
Naruszewicz undertook his celebrated critical "His-
tory of the Polish Nation." The "prince of poets,"
Bishop Ignatius Krasicki, was another member of the
King's circle, to which also belonged the poet Stani-
l-'IG. 158 WOYCIECH BOGUSL.AWSKI, Founder of the first national
theatre in Poland (1765)
slav Trembecki. Among the other cultural achieve-
ments of that time was the establishment of the first
national theatre which saw such a brilliant develop-
ment under the leadership of Woyciech Boguslawski,
and the founding of the periodic literary magazines.
THE THREE PARTITIONS
327
Philosophy, economics, pedagogy and political
science had illustrious representatives in Hugo Kol-
lontay, Stanislav Staszyc, Onufry Kopczynski, George
Piramowicz, the Sniadeckis, the brothers Stroynow-
ski, Wielhorski, Poplawski, Jezierski, Joseph Wybicki
PIG. 159 STANISLAV STASZYC (1755-1826)
Educator, Philosopher, Statesman and Ardent Patriot
and others. The political writers of the time were
chiefly under the influence of the Physiocrats and the
Encyclopaedists. They advocated the abolition of
serfdom, and. proposed numerous land reforms and
the recognition of the civic rights and economic needs
328 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of the townspeople. Some, like Butrymowicz, argued
for the equalization and polonization of the Jews.
The pamphlet literature of that period is one of the
richest in Europe. Among the leaders of the "third
estate" two rose to particular prominence, the presi-
dent of the City of Warsaw, John Dekert, and a law-
yer by the name of Barss. Aided by the champions
of social reform and particularly by the great genius
of Staszyc and Kollontay,they organized a movement
for the recognition of civic rights of the cities, which
found a sympathic echo in the middle class gentry.
The landowners had borne the brunt of the pre-
vious anarchy and misrule caused by the oligarchal
magnates who based their power on the
The Reform ui J A'
Part masses of impecunious nobles depending
upon them for a living. The respon-
sible, self-respecting middle class gentry, who once
before had shown their patriotism by organizing the
Bar Confederacy, joined hands with the responsible
real estate owners of the cities to establish a strong
'government based on the land owning elments of the
country, and on the complete or partial elimination
of the "noble" proletariate. This was in accordance
with the political ideals reaching Poland from the
West. The reform or patriotic party, as it was called,
counted among its adherents the most distinguished
men of the time. Some of the magnates like the
"Polish Aristides" Stanislav Malachowski and the
two brothers, Ignatius and Stanislav Kostka Potocki,
joined in the reform movement. The Czartoryskis
favored the reform party as it was the only element
in the country that openly championed freedom from
Russian tutelage, whose dupes they had been and on
account of which Polish state sovereignty had practi-
callv ceased to exist.
THE THREE PARTITIONS 329
The party that was most bitterly opposed to the
reformers was, in the first place, composed of the very
h reactionary and inert elements among
Opposition tne n t>ility who were almost unani-
mously supported by the episcopate, and
therefore by the" entire church hierarchy. The most
dangerous elements ln~fhe~upp"bsition, however, were
not those who deprecated the reforms because of
ignorance or conviction, but the ambitious and unscru-
pulous despoilers like Poninski, Xavier Branicki and
others. Not only were they opposed to fundamental
reforms, but seeing the moderately good work of the
Permanent Council, attempted to influence the Rus-
sian Empress to overturn it. Anarchy was a much
more profitable field for the rapacity of the magnates
of their kind than an orderly government. The lead-
ership of that element fell to Branicki, whose real
name was Branecki, but who usurped the name of the
ancient family of the, Branickis after the last legal
bearer of it, Hetman John Clement, died in 1771.
Branecki was a man of the lowest instincts and of a
most degraded character. He gained the first favors
of Catherine by ruthlessly pursuing the Bar Confeder-
ates with the aid of the Russian Cossacks. The next
steps were very easy. He became the owner of enor-
mous riches and rapidly mounted from one dignity to
another, until he became the Grand Hetman of the
Crown. He then desired to restore to the office the
great prerogatives it had possessed in the past and
declared war on the Permanent Council which re-
stricted it. His chief political associates were Felix
Potocki, the Polish Croesus, who owned over three
million acres of land and tens of thousands of serfs,
the despicable Bishop Kossak<5wski and his brother
Simon and Severin Rzewuski, erstwhile prisoner in
Kaluga, whither he had been exiled for making pro-
330 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tests against the iniquities of Russia at the Radom
Diet of 1768. Like Michael Radziwill he found it
much more convenient to dull his national sensibilities
and, upon receiving high honors, went so far as to
champion the retention of Russian influence in Po-
land and the former pernicious political and economic
liberties. The great mass of thoughtless, landless,
homeless, penniless nobility was always at the com-
mand of the magnates. Immense bands of these
hungry, ignorant and lawless nobles, following
blindly the command of their unscrupulous and ambi-
tious masters were the greatest menace to the country
and its free institutions, and the cause of its decline
and eventual downfall.
Placed between the two political extremes was
the compromise party of the King and his brother
Michael, the primate. They desired
The Political t o strengthen the country and its gov-
Conferences i j
with Catherine eminent, but. discountenanced opposi-
at Kaniow tion to Russian influence. They favored
only such changes as could be made
without arousing the opposition of the Russian sover-
eign. It was a hopeless program in the face of
Russia's watchfulness and her determination to pre-
serve the golden liberties of the Polish nobility. Yet
after the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, whose
evil genius stood ever in the way of Poland's best
efforts, the understanding reached in 1780 between
Emperor Joseph II and Catherine in regard to Turkey
was soon to be practically effected, and a change in
the Russian policy was to be expected. In case_o_f
war with Turkey the support of Poland was of great
value to Russia as it afforded the easiest route for the
passage of troops as well as for the making of con-
venient junctures with the Austrian armies. Further-
THE THREE PARTITIONS 331
more, the rich south Polish granaries and cattle herds
afforded abundant supplies for the provisioning of the
Russian troops. In 1787 Catherine, on her way to
Crimea, stopped at Kaniow to confer with King
Poniatowski concerning a Russian-Polish alliance
and some internal Polish matters. The leaders of the
extreme pro-Russian party all flocked to Kaniow for
secret political conferences with the Empress and her
hero Potemkin, and pledged their support against
Turkey for Russian assistance against the King and
the lawful government she had guaranteed to sup-
port. She did not accept their offer at the time but
reserved it for future utilization. The leaders of the
reform party, on the other hand, saw in the impend-
ing difficulties of Russia a chance to get rid of her
control and influence. Soon the country was called
upon to decide which of the two ways should be fol-
lowed: An alliance with Austria and Russia against
Turkey and the further intrenchment of Russian in-
fluence in Poland, or a union with Prussia for the
restoration of Polish sovereignty.
After the conference at Kaniow, the Russian
Empress sent the Polish King a copy of the proposed
The Project of Russo-Polish treaty. It guaranteed the
a Russo-Poiish territorial integrity of the allied coun-
tries and called for mutual help in the
event of foreign invasion. It declared against all
reforms in the Polish government, but contained con-
sent to holding the next Diet as of a confederacy in
order to prevent its dissolution and in order to carry
through the alliance as well as to provide for an in-
crease of the army. The need of the latter was well
recognized by all parties, and made possible the
unanimous consent, to a confederacy diet where
decisions were reached by a majority vote.
332 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The Diet met on October 6, 1788, in Warsaw and
formed the confederacy. The two marshals of the
confederacy, Stanislav Malachowski for
the Crown and Kasimir Nestor Sapieha
Years Diet, , T . . t T-.
1788-1792 * or Lithuania, belonged to the Patriotic
party. Their election ensured consider-
ation of the various reform measures and augured
ill for the proposed alliance with Russia. In two
weeks after the opening of the session the project to
increase the army to one hundred thousand .passed
and a special military commission was established to
supersede the War Department of the Permanent
Council. The Russian Ambassador protested against
this change and threatened war. The King and the
Primate argued against the change but the general
sentiment was very strongly in favor of it. It was
pointed out that a department which was not respon-
sible to the Diet and which was composed of men
appointed at the request of a foreign government and
subservient to it should not be given command of a
large army. ^This view prevailed and despite the
Russian threats the measure was adopted.
The severance of the Prusso-Russian entente,
which since 1764 had hung over Poland as a swqrd of
The Damocles, and the Russian entangle-
Aiiiance with ment in a war with Turkey and Sweden,
Prussia, 179C afforded the possiblity of free action.
Prussia, then in alliance with Great Britain and Hol-
land, strained every effort to embolden the Diet and
to estrange Poland from Russia, hoping by an alliance
with Poland and a war with Austria to gain for her-
self the City of Thorn and the commercial port of
Danzig, in return for the restoration of Galicia to the
Republic. Albeit the request for the cession of these
two cities was very firmly refused, the treaty with
Prussia was made on March 27, 1790. It guaranteed
THE THREE PARTITIONS 333
FIG. 160 STANISI.AV MALACHOWSKI (1736-1809)
'The Polish Aristides." Statesman and Patriot, President of the Four Years' Diet
334 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND ,
the integrity of the territorial possessions of the two
countries and mutual help to the last in case of foreign
invasion. Frederick Wilhelm II, the successor of
Frederick the Great, was thus able to gain the con-
fidence of Poland, much in need of. protection and
support to bring about the reformation of the govern-
ment by which only she could be saved from inevit-
able destruction, and to which Russia was unquali-
fiedly opposed.
The alliance with Prussia and thus indirectly
with England and Holland encouraged the Diet to
break the treaty with Russia and to
^s'hmenTof abolisn the constitution which she had
the* Four * f orced upon the country in 1775. This
Years' Diet marks the beginning of Poland's emanci-
pation from the demoralizing influence
of Russia. Patriotic enthusiasm reached a high pitch,
and it was found possible to pass a- law subjecting
the nobility to the payment of regular taxes which
had hitherto been identified with slavery. Forty
million guldens were needed annually to support
the army alone on the footing voted by the Diet.
Many new sources of revenue were devised, _but it
proved difficult to raise that amount for the war com-
mission. The army could not, therefore, be increased
to the desired one hundred thousand. The total net
revenue did not exceed forty millions. It was, how-
ever, twice the amount which had been raised a few
years before and was considered a great success and
a testimonial to the executive ability of the govern-
ment and the patriotic response of the country. It
enabled the government to obtain considerable loans
abroad. Ten millions was obtained in Holland alone.
Because the Diet did not limit itself to the revisions
of the Constitution, but discussed and considered
many social and economic problems, its work became
THE THREE PARTITIONS
335
dilatory, particularly in view of the obstructionist
tactics of the opposition. The civic rights of the
cities were brought very strikingly to the attention of
the Diet by the_bold act of the President of Warsaw
who, in November, 1789, brought together at the
FIG. 161 JAN DEKERT, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF WARSAW,
LEADER OF THE "THIRD ESTATE"
capital the representatives of 141 Polish cities and
jointly with them worked out a remarkable memorial
which was submitted to the King and the Diet. By
the enactment of April 18, 1791, the burghers received
336 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the privilege of neminem captivabimus or habeas
corpus, the right to own land and to hold any ecclesi-
astical, civil or military office. City home rule was
restored and the representatives of the cities were
admitted to the Diet to advise with reference to city
matters. Many of the aristocrats asked to be entered
among the citizens of the cities. In this wise a funda-
mental change in the political and social structure of
the country took place without the employment of
force or violence of any, kind. This act of the Diet
was but preliminary to the greater works of reform
which it undertook.
After prolonged debates a new constitution was
formulated. The Reform Part)'- well realized that
evolution does not proceed by leaps and
refrained from adopting extreme meas-
Constitution of ,. ,
May 3, 1791 ures advocated by the more radical wing
of the party, which was under the spell
of the principles of the French Revolution. To be
doubly sure they submitted a draft of the constitution
to the several land assemblies with a request that it be
locally considered and that additional deputies be sent
to the Diet to express the opinion of the country.
Almost all of the local assemblies voted for the consti-
tution, with the exception of the clause making the
throne hereditary, and elected the supporters of the
reform movement as their delegates. It was evident
that sober thought had taken possession of the
country when it realized that it had drifted too far in
the wrong direction. At the time when the country
had already suffered one dismemberment and was
soon to be deprived of its birthright to a free life and
to an unmolested development, it was perhaps riper
than ever before for rational and orderly democratic
self-government, as evidenced by the progress it made
during the past two decades, the provisions of the
THE THREE PARTITIONS 337
new constitution and the universal support it had
received. In spite of the practically universal ap-
proval of the measures to be incorporated in the new
constitution, the reformers hesitated to submit it to
a vote lest the opposition, with the support of Russia,
prevent its adoption. With the consent of the King,
a coup d'etat was agreed upon. The final draft of
the new instrument was prepared in a small circle and
the fifth of May was selected as the date on which it
was to be adopted. This date was fixed for the reason
that many of the members of the opposition were
still away on their Easter vacation. Only reform
sympathizers were apprised of the session. When
the secret became known, the session was called for
May 3rd, to prevent the arrival of the turbulent and
obstructionist opposition. Haste was indicated as
international conditions changed and the outlook
grew gloomier after Pitt's plans of a joint war with
Prussia and Poland against Russia came to naught.
Moreover, at the Convention of Reichenbach, 1790,
Austria, pressed by Prussia, consented to forego the
war with Turkey, on the basis of a status quo, and
Russia, having defeated the Turks, was eager for
peace. The Prusso-Austrian understanding nullified
the Prussian hopes of getting Thorn and Danzig in
return for the restoration of Galicia to Poland. The
need of forming a strong government as soon as pos-
sible became apparent and led to the coup d'etat. On
the third of May the Diet met in joint session at the
Royal Palace, amidst great demonstrations and jubila-
tion of the populace. After the reports of some of
the Polish ambassadors were read to acquaint the
deputies with the sinister significance of certain de-
velopments in foreign politics, the King submitted
the draft of the proposed constitution. The reading
of this short document proceeded amid the enthusi-
338
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
O
M m
H >
i
M *
O
H 5
O o
n fl
A. g
M g
% s
L-3
o o
THE THREE PARTITIONS 339
astic applause of the visitors and the hisses of the
opposition. Although Branicki's underlings were
present in full array and one of the deputies, by the
name of Suchprzewski, made a theatrical display of
emotion to manifest his resentment at the way "a
revolution had been hatched that liberty may perish,"
yet the opposition were unable to frustrate the plans
of the reformers. The Assembly adopted the con-
stitute n and a'non the procession went to the Cathe-
dral of St. John to witness the solemn oath the King
took to respect and defend it.
The new constitution did not deprive the nobility
of their privileged position. * It similarly recognized
Roman Catholicism as the prevailing re-
TheProvi- Hgion but assured liberty and protection
sions of the 11,1 j TII i r A -i
New Constitu- to a " ther creeds. L he laws of April
tion 38, 1791, concerning the cities, were all
incorporated in the new constitution.
Protection was given to the peasants in their relations
with the landlords but serfdom and patrimonial juris-
diction were retained. While the ancient social or-
ganization was left practically unchanged, the form
of government underwent considerable modification.
"By the will of the people" it was made to consist of
three distinct branches: the legislative, executive and
judicial. The legislative authority was vested in the
Diet, composed of the House of Deputies and the
Senate. The deputies of the nobility were to be con-
sidered representatives of the whole nation and not
of the several electoral districts as hitherto. All laws
originated in the House of Deputies, the Senate ap-
proved them or suspended them until the next Diet.
The Senate was composed of bishops, woyevodas,
castellans and ministers. The Diet was to meet
regularly every two years. It could, however, be
called at any other time to consider special matters
340 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
requiring immediate attention. Every twenty-five
years an extraordinary session was to be called to
consider amendments to the constitution. All deci-
sions at the Diets were to be taken by a majority vote.
Liberum veto was abolished, as were also the confed-
eracies. The executive power was vested in the King
and in the special council, known as the "Guardian of
the Laws," composed of the Primate in his capacity
of President of the Education Commission, and of five
ministers, appointed by the King for a term of two
years, and responsible before the Diet. The min-
isters were of: Police, the Seal, War, Treasury and
Foreign Affairs. The King had the power to appoint
the executive officials. He also nominated the
bishops and military officers. All the members of the
executive branch of the government were to receive
stipulated salaries. The King had the power to par-
don criminal offenders. In the event of war, the King
was to be commander-in-chief of the army. The
throne in Poland was to be hereditary in the direct
line of the King. In case of extinction of the royal
family, a king was to be elected and then the throne
made again hereditary in his line. Upon ascending
the throne every king was required to take an
oath on the constitution and on the pacta conventa.
The judicial organization remained practically un-
changed. The judges in the courts of the nobility
were elective as before. There were separate courts
for the cities and separate courts for the free peasants.
Serfs were dependent on patrimonial jurisdiction.
Appeals were to be taken to the tribunals.
To be sure, the new constitution was not perfect
when judged by our present-day democratic stan-
dards. It was, however, a long stride in the right
direction, undertaken amidst extremely difficult
THE THREE PARTITIONS 341
conditions. It corrected the vices of the former funda-
mental laws and gave the country a solid foundation
and a strong responsible government. In the words
of Professor Lewicki, "it was the middle ground be-
tween the ancient institutions and the extreme doc-
trines of the French revolution." * The paragraph in
the constitution providing for special sessions every
twenty-five years to consider amendments is worthy
of notice, as it is characteristic of Polish political
thought, which never recognized fixity of form in
social and political life. In its evolutionary concep-
tion of law, expressed as far back as the XlVth cen-
tury, in the Wislica statute, Poland had been a pre-
cursor and leader. The French Revolution set out
to create an "absolute" constitution which would
guarantee "absolute rights of man"; the makers of
the Polish constitution of 1791 held the view, now
generally recognized, that a constitution should be an
expression of the relation of all the living and active
forces operating within a nation. In accordance with
this principle they readily recognized the rights of
the burgesses as soon as they perceived that the cities
were really conscious of their interests and willing as
well as able to fight for their recognition. As the
peasants of the time lacked political vitality and made
no demands for their rights, their social status was
not changed. They received protection from all kinds
of iniquities as minors would. It was, however, ex-
pected that in another quarter or half century the
peasants would develop their own economic con-
sciousness and make political demands. To meet
such and similar conditions the provision for periodic
revisions of the constitution was devised.
* Zarys History! Polskiej. Vth Edition, Warsaw, 1913, p. 363.
342 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The best test of the new constitution is to be
found in its workings. Under it the country was
transformed itself rapidly. Prosperity
Foreign increased and law and order prevailed.
the^Ne'w Revenue came in regularly. The people
Constitution were satisfied and the army was in-
creased to fifty-seven thousand men,
with an equipment of twenty-six thousand horses and
over three hundred mortars. Unfortunately, the
Patriotic Party, more concerned about seeing the
reforms carried out than in occupying high positions,
allowed some of the most important state offices to
fall into the hands of the obstructionists. Two of the
five members of the new Executive Council or the
"Guardian of the Laws" were from among the re-
actionaries. Neither Branicki nor Rzewuski were
deposed from hetmanic dignity and two other com-
manding positions in the army were given to young
and inexperienced men, to Prince Joseph Poniatowski,
the nephew of the King and to Prince Louis of Wur-
temberg, son-in-law of Adam Czartoryski and brother
of the Austrian Empress and also brother of the wife
of the heir to the Russian throne. The foreign prince
turned traitor at a most critical moment, when Rus-
sian armies appeared in Poland to undo all the good
work and exertions of the Patriotic Party and to put
an end to the independence of the country, because it
was endeavoring to eradicate past cankerous growths
and to heal^the wounds of the body'politic. Russia
well realized that the reforms adopted would make
of Poland a strong and influential state and she was
determined to prevent such a development as soon
as sufficient forces could be despatched to Poland at
the close of the war with Turkey (1792). Catherine
remembered the assurances of support given to her
by the powerful Polish magnates who had met her
THE THREE PARTITIONS 343
at Kaniow in 1787 in the event of her undertaking to
undo the "Jacobinic reforms" aimed at the suppres-
sion of the former anarchy. She resolved now to
make use of these gentlemanly pledges. In addition
to such abject and crass creatures as Xavier Branicki,
Bishop Joseph Kossakowski, his brother Simon and a
few others, there were certain elements in Poland-
which she could also utilize to carry out her iniqui-
tous scheme. Many ambitious magnates, such as
Felix Pdtocki and Severin Rzjrwuski, saw in the pro-
visions of the new constitution a check to their in-
ordinate lust of power and importance; to others,
the idea of a hereditary throne was genuinely and
honestly repugnant. The large host of irresponsible
and indigent noblemen realized that under an orderly
system of government their services to the magnates
would depreciate in value and they would, in con-
sequence, be deprived of an easy living. All these
men could be marshaled to serve the cause of Russia.
While the Four Years' Diet was still at work re-
forming one thing after another, Branicki, Rzewuski,
Felix Potocki and others held secret con-
ferences with the Russian Empress and
Targowica undertook to organize a confederacy
with the object of overthrowing the
government and abolishing the constitution. Pro-
tected by a large Russian army under General
Kachowsky, the infamous Polish traitors issued their
manifesto in the Ukrainian town of Targowica. An-
other Russian army under Krechetnikoff entered
Lithuania, where Simon Kossakowski undertook to
organize a similar confederacy. Here it was that the
Prince of Wurtemberg, commanding the Lithuanian
forces, betrayed by disorganizing the army and pre-
venting it from offering determined resistance.
Wilno, the capital of Lithuania, fell and it then be-
344 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
came impossible for the dismembered army under
new leadership to hold the Russian advance. Many
cities and fortresses fell in quick succession, and the
rapid progress of the Russians reacted on the cam-
paign carried on in the other part of Poland by Prince
Poniatowski. He was compelled to retire before the
superior forces of the enemy and with every retreat
a new part of the country became a hunting ground
of the Targowica band. By intimidation^ind com-
pulsion they forced the nobility to join the cWsed con-
federacy, but the results of their nefarious work were
slim. Unfortunately, howeve'r, the successes of the
Russian armies had entirely upset the faint-hearted
King. He lost faith in the ability of the Polish army
to withstand the invasion, although it exhibited great
gallantry, particularly under Kosciuszko, and was
growing in resistance as it concentrated. When
Prussia proved to be an entirely unfaithful ally, and
when Catherine, in spite of the assurance given of her
grandson's accession to trje throne of Poland, de-
clined to make truce, the exasperated King, together
with many of his ministers, apprehending Catherine's
threats, joined the Confederacy. By his act he upset
all chances of a successful defence. The Polish gen-
erals and other officers resigned in a body and to-
gether with many other patriots went abroad. The
army, then in splendid fighting trim, became disor-
ganized and fell a prey to the leaders of the Confeder-
acy and of Russia. Large supplies of ammunition
fell into the enemy's hands, as did the State Treasury.
The national guard organized in the cities had to
disband and all of the multifarious patriotic plans of
defence collapsed. The Confederacy which, in spite
of Russian assistance had been feeble and quarrel-
some, suddenly came into power. When only a while
ago they had found but twelve active supporters in
THE THREE PARTITIONS 345
the whole of Great Poland and five in Mazovia, they
now were masters of the situation. The Russian
army took Warsaw and the confederates met at
Grodno to annul all the reforms of the Four Years'
Diet. Hardly were there ever greater misdeeds com-
mitted. The illustrious work of the patriots was
undone with vengeance. Rapacity and corruption
took its place. The fruits of the action of the Tar-
gowica ^^aders ripened quickly. Since then, in
Poland ^e name of Targowica has been a terrible
designation for national treason.
When the delegation of the ignominious Tar-
gowica Confederacy reached St. Petersburg to thank
the Empress for the noble help afforded,
pourparlers were already going on con-
Partation of f , , j- u
Poland, 1793 cerniiig the further dismemberment
of Poland. Prussia, suffering defeats
from the republican Frenchmen, was bent upon re-
covering in Poland the losses suffered in the West
and threatened with cessation of hostilities against
France unless her demands were heeded. Fearing
lest the threat be actually carried out, Russia and
Austria consented to the second partition on January
23, 1793. Immediately following this treaty Prus-
sian troops entered Poland and spread over Great
Poland and other parts of the country. The City of
Danzig resisted the invasion for over a month. A
similarly obdurate resistance was offered by the City
of Thorn until it finally fell under heavy bombardment.
Proclamations of the Russian and Prussian govern-
ments were published and the adoption by Poland of
the principles of the French Revolution was given as
the reason for the second partition, and to add to
their mockery they designated the Third of May as
the day on which the occupied country was to render
"homagium." The honest but misguided members
346 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of the Governing Board of the Targowica Confed-
eracy looked with consternation at what they had
accomplished, and left the country. Others, like
Felix Potocki, became Russian generals. Meanwhile
the Russian Ambassador, Count Sievers, requested
that the Diet assemble for the purpose of formally
ceding to Russia and Prussia the territories occupied
by the troops of the respective countries.
To ensure themselves of a desirable election both
the Russian and Prussian ambassadors used every
means conceivable to bribe or intimidate
Last Diet * ne ^ oca ^ diets into sending representa-
tives agreeable to their designs. The
Diet, consisting of but six senators and one hundred
and twenty deputies met at Grodno and despite the
vouched for character of the cleputies, refused to
ratify the pillage. Only after the recalcitrant mem-
bers were either arrested by the Russian soldiery
guarding the city, or were stilled by threats of con-
fiscation of their estates, and not until the King was
deprived of the supply of food and the country men-
aced with war should further resistance be offered,
did the Diet consent on the 23rd of July, 1793, to cede
to Russia the counties of Minsk, Kieff, Bratslav,
Podolia and the eastern districts of tBlTcountTes of
Wilno, Novogrodek, Podlasie and Volhynia, an im-
mense territory with 3,800,000 inhabitants. In this
way Russia took the remainder of White Riissia; the
remainder of Ukraine and Podolia and the eastern
sections of Polesie and Volhynia. As to the claims
of Prussia, the Diet remained obstinate and refused
to sanction them. The territories taken by the Prus-
sians were the richest of the country's domains and
were autochthonously Polish. No threats availed.
Finally, on September 23, 1793, when no vote could be
taken because the deputies refused to answer ques-
THE THREE PARTITIONS
34*;
348
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tions, Sievers by force compelled the King and the
Marshal to sign the treaty of cession, by which Prus-
sia acquired the cities of Thorn and Danzig, the coun-
FIG. 163 TADEUSZ KOSCIUSZKO
Monument by Antonl Popiel at Washington, D. C.
ties of Gnesen, Posen, Kalisz, Sieradz, the whole of
Kujawy, the county of Wielun with the City of Czen-
stochowa, the counties of Plock and Rawa and parts
THE THREE PARTITIONS 349
of Mazovia, Austria did not participate in the second
dismemberment. Only 245,000 square kilometers with
about three and a half million inhabitants, was left of
Poland. With the main purpose of the Diet accom-
plished, Sievers requested that a new constitution be
adopted, which, in almost every way was similar to
that of 1775. This labor of the last Polish Diet was
superfluous, as the months of the independence of the
country were limited and the "people's rebellion" of
Thaddeus Kosciuszko broke out sooner than even its
organizers expected.
While the Grodno Diet was still in session, a
group of patriots in Warsaw were laying plans for a
revolution in which the whole nation
was to take part. The brutality of the
Kosciuszko Russian and Prussian soldiery and the
1794 severe economic crisis which followed
the Targowica venture, and the second
dismemberment, brought about a state of mind in
which one spark could cause a social conflagration.
When Igelstrom, the new Russian Ambassador, re-
quested that the Polish army, already weakened by
the treacherous Polish hetmans, Kossakowski and
Ozarowski, be reduced to half its size, Brigadier Gen-
eral Madalinski refused to submit to the order and
struck at Ostrolenka. This was the tocsin that tolled
general alarm. From house tops the revolution was
proclaimed. Kosciuszko, who had gained fame dur-
ing the American War for Independence and who had
recently distinguished himself under Joseph Ponia-
towski, was acclaimed Dictator. On March 24, 1794,
he issued his famous manifesto in Cracow. Without
waiting, having only four thousand troops and two
thousand peasants armed with scythes, he proceeded
against the Russians and at Raclawice gained a bril-
liant victory over a large body of them. The peas-
350 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
THE THREE PARTITIONS
351
ants exhibited wonders of chivalry and daring.
Many a cannon was captured by them. In recogni-
tion of their patriotism and valor Kosciuszko issued
a manifesto from his camp abolishing serfdom and
granting to the peasants the ownership of the land
FIG. 165 COL. JAN KILINSKI, Patriot, Leader of the Warsaw populace
tilled by them. The revolution gained impetus. War-
saw rose, and the population under the leadership of
John Kilinski, a shoemaker, aided by a small Polish
garrison, freed the city from Russian domination,
taking over all the military stores and depots. Wilno
soon followed Warsaw's example. Enthusiasm waxed
352 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
high. Even Jews, called upon by the distinguished
Jewish Colonel Berek Joselowicz to rise, formed a
regiment. The Russians were driven out everwhere
and the traitors like Bishop Massalski, Bishop Kos-
sakowski, hetman Ozarowski, hetman Kossakowski,
Ankwicz and others were hanged. The effigies of
those who succeeded in fleeing the country were
strung up on lamp-posts. The King's brother, the
FIG. 166 COL. BEREK JOSELOWICZ
The Jewish Commander of a Regiment under KoSciuszko
Primate, escaped an ignominious death by commit-
ting suicide. In spite of the auspicious beginning of
the revolution, the energy of the governing body
and the support and the boundless generosity of the
people, it failed in view of the infinitely superior
forces of Russia and Prussia, which were subsequently
joined by Austria, the latter desiring to compensate
its loss of Belgium at the expense of Poland. In-
cidently it may be added that, as has been so well
THE THREE PARTITIONS 353
brought out by Chuquet and other historians, the
Polish uprising under Kosciuszko saved France from
destruction, just as a later uprising against Russia in
1830 made possible the emancipation of Belgium from
Dutch rule.
When Cracow fell into the hands of the Prus-
sians, the Polish forces retired to Warsaw. The de-
fense of Warsaw was so determined that when Gen-
eral John Henryk Dombrowski organized resistance
in Great Poland and struck at the rear of the Prussian
army, they hurriedly raised the siege of the capital
and withdrew, suffering great losses. No sooner had
they retired than a huge Russian host, having taken
Wilno, marched upon Warsaw led by SWV^KQV. To
prevent the juncture of this army with that of Fersen,
Kosciuszko decided to strike at the latter. Adam
Poninski failed to bring support at the proper
moment. Kosciuszko suffered a defeat at Macie-
yowice and, seriously wounded, was captured by the
Russians on October 10, 1794. The news of his cap-
ture threw the country into despair. Meanwhile,
Suvorov approached Warsaw and began to bombard
its suburb, Praga, situated on the right bank of the
Vistula. On November 4th Praga was taken and its
population was literally slaughtered by the blood-
thirsty soldiery. About fifteen thousand persons
were butchered and many more thousands maimed.
Until this day Polish mothers frighten their children
with the name of Suvorov. The next day the capital
fell. Wholesale executions, arrests and exiles ^to.
Siberia followed. The immense estates of the Crown
ami Ihose of Trie participants in the revolution were
confiscated and divided among Russian generals and
the Polish traitors who had sold their country.
Prussia and Austria proceeded in a similar manner,
354
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
THE THREE PARTITIONS
355
the latter forcing thousands of Polish refugees into
the ranks of her depleted army.
Soon after the capitulation of Warsaw and of the
Polish army came the third partition of the country.
On October 24, 1795, Poland ceased to
exist as an independent state entity.
Partition of ~, . , , v*
Poland, 1795 * ne P art * tne country between the
rivers Bug, Vistula and Pilica, together
with the City of Cracow, went to Austria. The sec-
tion to the west of the rivers Pilica, Vistula, Bug and
Niemen, with the City^of Warsaw, went to Prussia
and the remainder to Russia. On November 25, 1795,
on the thirty-first anniversary of his election and
on the namesday of the Russian Empress, the
wretched and pitiful King Stanislas-August abdicated
/ " ^lc
the throne of Poland at Grodno. The Russian Gov-
ernment paid his debts and obligations, and after
Catherine's death he was invited by Czar Paul I to St.
Petersburg, where he remained until his death in
1798. And so came to an end the history of the
Polish Republic, but not of the Polish Nation.
FIG. ] 67 THE EAGLE ON
KOSCIUSZKO'S BANNER
FIG. 168 A POLISH LANDSCAPE
Napoleon and the Duchy of Warsaw
One of the most egregious errors of the Polish
political philosophy of the XVIIIth century was the
The Attitude prevailing belief that Poland was needed
of England and to preserve the balance of power in Eu-
France toward rope, and that she was exposed to no
the Polish danger as long as she remained unag-
gressive and as long as there existed
competition and jealousy among the great powers,
precluding the territorial aggrandizement of any one
of them. How utterly fallacious such reasoning was
the sad events of the last quarter of the XVIIIth
century amply demonstrated. The internal problems
of France and the exhausting wars she carried on,
the preoccupation of Great Britain with the Ameri-
can Revolution, and the jealousies and antagonisms
between France and England afforded the oppor-
tunity for Russia, Prussia and Austria to proceed
unhampered with reference to Poland. With the ex-
ception of Turkey, no European power did so much
as protest when "the greatest crime of modern history
was perpetrated." In reply to Poniatowski's appeal
after the first dismemberment, King George III of
England wrote: "Good Brother . . . justice ought
to be the invariable guide of sovereigns ... I fear,
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 357
however, misfortunes have reached the point where
redress can be had from the hand of the Almighty
alone, and I see no other intervention that can afford
a remedy." * Beyond an expression of sympathy,
England did nothing to prevent the utter destruction
of Poland at the time when the country was going
through a period of national regeneration and was
making superhuman efforts to remedy the ancient ills,
to create a strong government and to introduce social
and economic reforms. "After all, no English in-
terests were involved in the partition. It was not
her business to intervene." ** The interests of Great
Britain in the East at that time were purely commer-
cial and the fate of Poland was a matter of indiffer-
ence to her as long as she was assured by the treaty
of May, 1774, with Frederick the Great, of all former
commercial rights at Danzig and Western Prussia.
"The time had not arrived when Great Britain felt
that the Russian advance was either a menace to her
Mediterranean interests or to her Indian empire."***
France also remained singularly unperturbed over
Poland's tragedy. Louis XV did not even reply to
Poniatowski's appeal of 1772. And Revolutionary
France did not exhibit any particular enthusiasm for
"a country of nobles."
As a consequence, the Polish nation was left en-
tirely unaided against the joint action of three power-
ful militaristic States to whom "might
^ e P s - t Par " was right" and whose governments im-
tition Regime .. f> , f. . , ,
in Poland mediately after the partitions proceeded
ruthlessly to suppress the national Po-
lish sentiments and bound themselves by the treaty
*David Jayne Hill, "A History of Diplomacy in the International
Development of Europe," Vol. Ill, p. 675.
**J. Ellis Barker, "Peace and the Polish Problem," The Nineteenth
Century and After, January, 1915, p. 99.
***D. J. Hill, loc. cit., p. 659.
358 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of January 26, 1797, to destroy everything "which
might retain the memory of the Polish Kingdom."
The leaders of the nation, not excluding Kosciuszko,
were imprisoned and some of those who fell into Rus-
sia's hands were exiled to Siberia and even to Kam-
chatka. Prussia and Austria applied themselves to
the task of denationalization very industriously. Po-
lish law and institutions were supplanted by those
of the Teutonic countries; schools were Germanized;
heavy taxes were laid ; men were drafted into military
service to supply the then much needed fodder for
cannon; large crown, church and individual estates
were confiscated; German colonization in the Polish
provinces was strongly encouraged. The Prussian
minute police regulations and her spy system which
she introduced in Poland were as cruel and vexatious
as they were petty and ludicrous : they went so far as
to prescribe methods of cow milking. The principle
of collective responsibility for political offenses of indi-
viduals was applied and the imposition of a severe cen-
sorship thwarted every expression of patriotism. In
Russian Poland the lot of the nobility was not as
severe as in the other two sections of the country.
The inferior Russian civilization could not readily
supersede the higher culture of Poland. A form of
home rule was also retained. Moreover, the oppor-
tunities afforded for a ready export of grain through
the newly opened ports of the Black Sea brought ma-
terial prosperity. This prosperity, however, was ac-
quired at the terrible expense of the peasantry, whose
conditions under the new regime became infinitely
worse. The cities were likewise deprived of all the
privileges and prerogatives granted to them by the
Four Years' Diet. The habitations of the Jews were
restricted to a certain area and the Uniate Church
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 359
was singled out for repressions and persecutions by
the Russian Government.
Every successive dismemberment sent forth a
new wave of Polish emigration. The exiles scattered
in various parts of Europe and some
Hie Hopes even embarked for the far-off shores of
America. Endeavors were made to
tne .Polish . .
Patriots arouse the nations of Europe and their
governments to a realization of the
crime committed upon Poland, and to stimulate them
to action in the cause of humanity and justice. Real-
izing that no nation would sacrifice its blood to avenge
the Polish tragedy, the emigrants conceived the idea
of organizing Polish armed forces in Wallachia
and elsewhere and of holding them ready to enter
Poland when the proper moment came. The expecta-
tions of an international conflict to which Poland
could offer a key were based on sound premises. The
antagonism between Austria and France was bitter
and after Prussia sealed her compact with the French
Republic at Basel on April 5, 1795, the old enmity of
Austria toward Prussia was revived and the robber
triumvirate was divided against itself. Austria en-
deavored to induce Russia to a war against Prussia,
"the traitor of the monarchial idea." Nothing but
a war among the three black eagles, aided by 'Revolu-
tionary France, as contemplated by the Paris Com-
mittee of Public Safety, could offer the coveted chance
of organizing a Polish army to regain national
independence. The hopes of Poland hung upon a
triumphant France and nobody realized this more
clearly than did General Jan Henryk Dombrowski,
who, after the defeat of Kosciuszko at Macieyowice,
conceived the bold and pathetic idea of gathering the
remaining forces and of marching to France, jointly
with the King and the members of the Four Years'
360
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Diet, cutting through Germany by force, if necessary.
He well knew that France was the only country in
Europe at the time which could have a direct interest
FIG. 169 GENERAL JAN HENRYK DOMBROWSKI, ORGANIZER OF THE
POLISH LEGIONS OF THE NAPOLEONIC ERA
in the reconstruction of Poland. The obduracy of the
King and the indecision on the part of General Wawr-
zecki, the successor of Kosciuszko in command of the
army, prevented the execution of this truly dramatic
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 361
act. When it failed, Dombrowski, a knight "sans
peur et sans reproche," whose military fame was well
known abroad, went to Berlin in February, 1796,
where he presented to the King of Prussia a plan of a
joint campaign with France and Turkey against
Austria and Russia and assured him of Poland's
active assistance if Prussia would help to restore Po-
land's independence. Should this be realized he was
confident the Poles would welcome a Hohenzollern
to the throne of their thus reconstructed country.
After numerous conferences with the Berlin cabinet
and the French representatives, he left for France to
organize Polish legions from among those Poles who
resided abroad or who were kept in French detention
camps as Austrian soldiers.
There is hardly a more touching chapter in the
world's history than the story of the Polish Legions.
When Dombrowski arrived at Paris he
presented his idea in a memorial which
Legions f , . . . -IT
he had prepared jointly with Joseph
Wybicki, the member of the Four Years' Diet and
the lawyer Barss, who was the representative of Kos-
ciuszko. It was favorably received by the Directory
and by M. Petiet, the Minister of War. He then
went to Milan to present himself to Bonaparte, the
youthful hero, then Commander in Chief of the Army
in Italy. Napoleon had already heard about con-
ditions in Poland from his gallant adjunct, captain
Joseph Sulkowski, who subsequently perished in
Egypt. Referring to a letter received from Prince
Michael Oginski, an ardent patriot whose immense
estates in Lithuania were confiscated by Russia and
who was then active in patriotic circles in Turkey,
Napoleon said to Sulkowski: "What can I reply to
him? What can I promise? Tell your countrymen
that I love the Poles and esteem them highly; that the
362 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
dismemberment of Poland was an act of injustice
which cannot last; that after the war in Italy is over
I shall personally lead Frenchmen against Russia to
compel her to restore Poland's independence; but tell
him also that the Poles should not rely on foreign
help, that they should arm themselves, harass Russia
and keep in contact with their country. The beauti-
ful words designed for their infatuation lead nowhere.
I know the diplomatic language and the indolence of
Turkey. A nation crucified by her neighbors can be
resurrected only by the call to arms." * In spite of
his pronounced feelings toward Poland, he gave a
cold reception to General Dombrowski when the lat-
ter appeared at the French headquarters on Decem-
ber 4, 1796. The probable reason for it was Napoleon's
contempt for "the lawyers of the Directory," whose
letters of introduction Dombrowski presented. This
attitude toward the man who was carrying out his
former advice with reference to Poland soon changed
and developed into a warm admiration for the mili-
tary genius of Dombrowski, and the gallantry of his
legions whose status was determined by the conven-
tion signed by the Administrative Board of Lom-
bardy and the Polish General on January 9, 1797. In
this way, two years after the last dismemberment of
Poland, a Polish army was formed, in Polish uni-
forms, under Polish command, decorated with French
cockades and wearing on the epaulets the inscription:
"Gli uomini liberi sono fratelli." (Free men are
brethren.) The legionaries were considered citizens
of Lombardy with a right to return to their mother-
land whenever circumstances might demand it. On
January 20, 1797, Dombrowski issued his appeal to
the Poles, in which he said: "Poles, hope is rising.
*Maryan Kukiel: "Dzieje or^za polskiego, 1795-1815." Posen:
Z. Rzepecki et Co., 1912, p. 30.
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 363
France is victorious. She fights for the cause of the
nations. Let us help to weaken her enemies. . . Po-
lish legions are being formed in Italy . . . The
triumphs of the French Republic are our only hope.
With her help and that of her allies we may yet see
our homes which we left with emotion." * In re-
FIG. 170 ONE OF THE COLORS OF THE POLISH
LEGIONS IN LOMBARDY
sponse to this call thousands of Poles flocked to Dom-
browski's banners. A good star seemed to have ap-
peared on the dark horizon and enthusiasm was
genuine. The rapturous song of the Polish Legions,
known by its first words "Poland is not yet lost," or
as "Dombrowski's march" was then born and has
since become the national anthem. To its strains the
valiant Legions flung themselves into the thick of
every battle.
*M. Kukiel: Loc. cit., p. 33.
364 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Napoleon's phenomenal successes over Austria
at Arcole, Rivoli and Mantua seemed to make the
realization of Polish hopes near at hand. Dombrow-
ski had already secured Bonaparte's permission for
a march through Transylvania to Galicia, when truce
was declared at Leoben and preliminary steps taken
for the Campo Formio peace. The treaty sealed on
October 17, 1797, made, however, no mention of Po-
land. It was the first severe shock and disappoint-
ment experienced at Napoleon's hands. The only
apparent result of all the bloody efforts of the past
campaign was the intact existence of the Legions,
the living and fighting representation of Poland.
After the Campo Formio treaty they became attached
to the Cisalpine Republic. In June, 1798, Kosciuszko
returned from America to France where he was met
by the government and the people of the country in
a most tender and enthusiastic manner. His popu-
larity and influence were expected to promote the
cause of the Legions, whose chief adviser he became.
He was yet bound by his pledge to the Russian Em-
peror Paul I, who released him from imprisonment
under promise of not taking part in active service
against Russia. He acted, therefore, only as a patron
and counsellor of the Polish army. His encourage-
ment added fresh vigor to the soldier-patriots who
patiently persisted in their devotion and self-imposed
military service. New hopes arose when the second
coalition w r as launched by the allied powers against
France. The Legions w r ere burning with desire to
push the campaign as far eastward as possible, to be
nearer their goal. They distinguished themselves in
Championnet's army, as only men fighting for a great
ideal can. In the battle at Civita Castellana the
Polish batallion under General Kniaziewicz annihil-
ated the corps of Count de Saxe, which constituted
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 365
the left wing of the Neapolitan army. When at Calvi,
Kniaziewicz, by a flank attack, took six thousand
prisoners, Championnet elevated him to the rank of
Brigadier General. Gaeta was captured by Dom-
browski and it was Kniaziewicz's garrison that occu-
pied the Capitol after Rome fell. In recognition of
his brilliant services Kniaziewicz was chosen to carry
the captured banners to Paris. Rivers of beautiful
oratory were poured on the Legions for their valor
and French gratitude to the Poles vouched forever.
Polish troops took part in the bitter north Italian
campaign. In the battle of Legnano the Poles re-
vealed wonders of bravery and determination. At
Magnano the heroic General Rymkiewicz fell; Chlo-
picki exhibited his dauntless courage and coolness in
t-he action at Novi; and Michael Sokolnicki's grena-
diers performed marvellous feats of prowess and valor
on many occasions. On the banks of the Trebbia the
Polish eagles fought with particular furor. They were
facing the Tamerlane of the day, the Russian Field
Marshal Suvorov, the heartless destroyer of Praga
whom they had met in the Valley of the Vistula be-
fore. In this battle General Dombrowski was severly
wounded. The French army, however, was com-
pelled to retire before the vastly superior forces of the
Allies and when the fortress of Mantua surrendered,
many of the Poles who were in the garrison of the
city fell into Austria's hands.
Strenuous campaigning, murderous battles, in-
clement weather, disease, privations, lack of food and
clothing decimated the ranks of the Polish warriors
who braved everything and suffered without com-
plaint or murmur of dissatisfaction, although some
of the duties assigned to them were repugnant to
their moral principles. They saw only their ideal,
for the realization of which no price was too high.
366 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The reverses suffered by the French armies, however,
made the achievement of it remote, but when Na-
poleon returned from Egypt spirits rose again. With
the opening of the new campaign, fresh Polish volun-
teers filled the depleted ranks of the Legions. Soon
Dombrowski and Kniaziewicz were in command of an
army of over fifteen thousand experienced veterans,
whose hearts were filled with patriotic ardor and
whose souls glowed with enthusiasm. "God is with
Napoleon and Napoleon is with us," was the prevail-
ing sentiment, to use the words of the great poet
Mickiewicz. At Marengo, St. Christoph and Hohen-
linden, Polish banners were in the thick of the fight
and the victory at the latter place was in no mean
measure due to Kniaziewicz. France was again tri-
umphant and as had happened four years before, so
now when Dombrowski was preparing to lead his
Legions through Bohemia and Moravia to join hands
with the insurrection which was being organized in
Poland, Bonaparte concluded the Luneville peace on
February 9, 1801. And again no mention was made
of Poland, whose fate was completely subordinated
to the direct interests of France. The peace treaty,
moreover, contained a clause to the effect that no
activities on the part of the subjects of the signatory
powers aimed at their respective governments shall
be tolerated in any of the contracting countries. This
meant the dissolution of the Legions. It is hard to
describe the crushing effect the treaty produced on
the minds of ffiBe Polish leaders. The organizers of
the Legions were severely taken to task by Polish
public opinion for the misdirection of their efforts and
the profitless waste of life and energy. General
Kniaziewicz resigned from service in spite of the in-
sistent persuasions of M. Berthier, the French min-
ister of War. Following his example, a great many
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 367
officers laid down their swords and returned to
Poland. In order to save the Legions, the undaunted
Dombrowski presented several plans to Napoleon,
one of them proposing the conquest of some of the
Aegean islands and the establishment of a Polish
colony there. All were in vain. A part of the Legion
was incorporated into the Italian army and a part
was sent, at the point of the bayonet, to San Do-
mingo to subdue a revolt of the Haytians. Most of
the men perished there either from bullets or from
yellow fever. Only a few hundred came back from
this expedition. They brought back bitter feelings.
One of them, speaking of the reasons which prompted
Napoleon to send j;he Poles to their perdition in the
West Indies, says in his memoirs: "Napoleon had
already been striving for the crown; seeing in us
determined republicans he wanted to punish us and
dug for us a grave at San Domingo." Whatever his
motives were, he sadly duped those whom he once
promised the redemption of their country from "the
injustice which cannot last" and whom he warned
against infatuation by diplomatic tricks.
Although the Legions had sorely failed in ac-
complishing what their leaders had in mind when
they organized them, their efforts and sacrifices were
not entirely in vain. They established a lofty tra-
dition. They demonstrated to the world that Poland
is ready to shed her blood profusely for the regaining
of her independence; that her patriotism and gallan-
try are second to none in the world and that there can
be no peace in Europe until Poland is reconstructed.
Furthermore, the common service of tens of thou-
sands of Poles of all stations and conditions, including
even Jews, under Republican banners, bound together
by the slogan, "free men are brethren," had produced
a deep impression on their modes of thinking and
368 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
helped to lessen somewhat the social rift which
had hitherto separated a nobleman from a peasant.
Finally the admiration which Napoleon could not help
developing for the character and bravery of the Poles
was one more reason which prompted him to form
later the Duchy of Warsaw. An Englishman (Fox
Strangways) writing about Poland in 1831 had
thus expressed the value of the services the Legions
rendered to their country: "After spending their
blood in Italy, Spain, San Domingo and in various
campaigns where neither the cause of Poland nor the
principles of liberty were advanced, they ultimately
succeeded in extorting from him (Napoleon) the
formation of his Polish conquests into the Duchy of
Warsaw. Then it was that the survivors of those
who had shed their blood in seemingly hopeless war-
fare met the recompense they deserved. Since that
time they ceased not to repeat to their countrymen
that of their fellow soldiers who died in Egypt or the
West Indies, not one died in vain. . . . Thus a
wandering nation of fifteen thousand warriors re-
stored Poland, if not to her rank, at least to her in-
dependence." *
The disappointment following the Luneville
treaty turned popular sentiment in another direction,
and circumstances were particularly
The Pro-Rus- favorable to effect such a turn. The
sian Turn in "Semiramis of the North" died in 1796,
tics and ] ail( * her S0n Paul : br ke With a11 f her
Cza'rtoryski's policies. He expressed his condemna-
Pians tion of the manner in which she had
treated Poland and released all the Po-
lish prisoners, of whom Kosciuszko was one. Eng-
land was much displeased with the new Tsar and
*Thoughts on the Present Aspect of Foreign Affairs." By an
Englishman, London, James Ridgway, 1831, p. 76-77.
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 369
his attitude toward France. His reign was very short
however. In 180.1 he was murdered and his son
Alexander succeeded him to the throne of Russia.
Educated by a Frenchman and possessing an impres-
sionable mind, the Tsarevich developed strong lean-
ings toward the principles of the French Revolution
and a strong dislike of despotism and injustice. His
idealism did not, however, prevent him from taking
part in the plot against his father.
In his boyhood Alexander had been thrown a
great deal with the two young brothers Czartoryski,
who were raised as hostages at the Russian court,
An intimate friendship arose between the future Em-
peror and the Polish Prince, Adam Czartoryski, a
man of high ideals but mellow character! TEey had
often discussed plans for the future happiness of man-
kind and the restoration of Poland. With Alexander's
advent to the throne, Czartoryski was made Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Russia and the Curator of Edu-
cation in the Wilno district which was one of the six
educational districts into which the Empire was di-
vided and which comprised the Polish and Lithuanian
provinces. With such a change in the attitude of
Russia toward Poland and with a Pole elevated to the
highest position in the Empire in the ominous year of
the Luneville peace, small wonder that the hopes of
certain elements in Poland became associated with
those of Russia. The bond of race added an element
of sympathy to the union with that country and
created the fiction of common interest against Teu-
tonism which was pursuing a ruthless war of exterm-
ination of Polish culture in the sections under Prus-
sian and Austrian sovereignty. A strong pro-Russian
party arose, particularly among the Lithuanians, led
by Prince Lubecki, Prince Michael Oginski, the erst-
while supporter of Dombrowski's Legions, whose
370 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OJ POLAND
estates were returned to him, and many others. Their
program aimed at the unification of all Polish terri-
tories into an autonomous unit under the sceptre of
Russian tsars, as kings of Poland. Czartoryski
planned to carry this through by offering Silesia and
Bavaria or some provinces on the Danube to Austria
in return for Galicia, and the Rheinish provinces to
Prussia for the cession of her share of Poland. The
coalition that was to help in the proposed reconstruc-
tion of Europe and in checking French aggressiveness
was to embrace Russia, Austria, England, Sweden
and Prussia. The latter refused to join the coalition,
preferring neutrality which she had maintained since
1795. It was planned to coerce her by sending a
Russian army, and Prince Joseph Poniatowski was
counted on to organize a rebellion in that part of
Poland which was under Prussian rule. The Tsar
was expected to proclaim himself King of Poland and
was enthusiastically received in Pulawy when he came
to visit the Czartoryskis in the "Polish Athens."
Prussian diplomacy and the persuasion of the Russian
advisers of the Tsar frustrated the plan. Alexander
did not issue the expected proclamation, but instead
went to Berlin where he and the Prussian King swore
fidelity to each other over the grave of Frederick the
Great, whose saying that "Poland is the communion
uniting the Catholic, Lutheran and Schismatic" was
as true then as it was when enunciated. The Tsar
then also turned over to his new ally the list of names
of the Prussian Poles who were to lead the planned
uprising. That confidential list was given to him; as
future King of Poland, by Czartoryski. So came to a
disappointing end the plans of Czartoryski, unrealiz-
able at best in view of the fresh momentous victories
of Napoleon over the Austrians and Russians at Ulni
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW
371
372 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and Austerlitz, which even Prussia's participation
would probably not have prevented.
Outside of England, Napoleon considered the
Hapsburgs his greatest enemy. He was, therefore,
The Defeat anxious to nourish good relations with
of Prussia and Prussia which could be used as a check
Napoleon's against Austria. Likewise, Russia was
Promises to a desirable ally. The reopening of the
Polish question had, therefore, very
small chances of coming to pass. When Prussia first
betrayed Russia and then again France with the con-
sequence that in a short while she found herself over-
run by Napoleon's army and suffered a terrific defeat
at Jena and then again at Auerstadt, the Polish ques-
tion took on a brighter aspect. Half of Prussia's do-
main consisted of recently acquired Polish territory.
Campaigning in a country remote from his base,
Napoleon was forced to seek support among the Poles.
He approached Austria with a proposal to exchange
Galicia for Silesia and asked Kosciuszko, whose name
was surrounded by a halo of glory and patriotism, to
organize an armed force in Poland. Kosciuszko did
not trust the ambitious French despot and demanded
assurances that the Polish state would be restored to
its pre-partition boundaries and that the serfs would
be freed. As no assurances were given, Kosciuszko
refused to act. Napoleon then turned to Dombrow-
ski. The indefatigable warrior immediately proceeded
to organize a legion with the aid of Wybicki, Zayon-
czek and others. In his appeal issued from Berlin in
November, 1806, Dombrowski quoted the famous
words of Napoleon: "If the Poles will prove that
they are worthy of having independence, they shall
have it." The appeal was received with indescribable
enthusiasm. The belief of the people in Napoleon's
star and the magnetic influence his name exercised,
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 373
caused an immense outpouring of men into the ranks
of the new Legions, to whom were added the Polish
veterans of Italy. Money was raised locally for the
equipment and provisioning of the Polish army. A
large Polish deputation from Warsaw, headed by
Count Dzialynski, came to visit Napoleon in Berlin.
He received them on November 19th with great pomp
and according to the newspaper accounts of the time,
he said among other things: "France has never
recognized the dismemberment of Poland ... If
I shall see a Polish army of thirty to forty thousand
men I shall proclaim in Warsaw your independence ;
and when I shall proclaim it, it will be inflexible. It
is in the interest of France and that of all Europe,
that Poland should have her free existence. Let in-
ternal strife cease. Your fate is in your own hands."*
Could Poland do otherwise than she did in view of
such a statement from the conqueror of Europe? Im-
mediately rebellions sprung up in various parts of Po-
land against Prussia. Meanwhile Murat, pursuing
the Prussians and Russians entered Warsaw on No-
vember 28, 1806, and was received amidst tears of
emotion and cries of exultation of the populace, which
greeted him and his troops as the redeemers of Po-
land. Faithful to their pledges, the Poles raised an
army even in excess of the demanded thirty thousand.
The organization of it was entrusted to Prince Joseph
Poniatowski who was made minister of war of the
Polish territories cleared of the Prussians. The gov-
ernment of the country was entrusted to a Committee
of Seven and Stanislaw Malachowski, the venerable
president of the Four Years' Diet was made chairman
of it. Napoleon found the alliance with Poland very
profitable. The country kept his army well provi-
*Professor Sokolowski, 1. c. Vol. IV, p. 259.
374
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
sioned and the Polish regiments proved of great
service to him in direct action as well as in scout duty.
His victories at Pultusk, Danzig, Friedland and else-
where were in a large measure due to the support of
the Polish troops and their knowledge of the terrain
of operations.
(Painting by Gius. Grassi, 1786)
FIG. 172 PRINCE JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI
Seeing the change of attitude on the part of the
Poles and realizing the importance of their friendship
during the period of hostilities, Alex-
The Treaty ander appealed to the aristocratic and
of Tilsit, 1807 wealthy elements in Poland to whom the
haughtiness of the French "parvenu"
was very distasteful and smacked too much of the de-
tested Revolution. He appealed to Czartoryski and to
Kniaziewicz, asking them to organize counter Le-
gions. Neither of the two consented to engage in this
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 375
work of Cain. The pro-Russian party agitated in
favor of Alexander and kept on pointing out the previ-
ous treatment of the Poles by Napoleon and called on
the people to side with the "Slavic Monarch" whom
the Russian General Benningsen was about to pro-
claim King of Poland. Prussia, seeing how promptlv
Poland had raised a considerable army, also attempted
to gain Polish friendship and promised the resti-
tution of the country under a Hohenzollern. While
this was going on, the disastrous defeat suffered by
the Russians at Friedland opened the way for peace
pour-parlers between Napoleon and Russia. In July,
1807, the two monarchs met on the River Niemen at
Tilsit to sign a peace treaty. Napoleon was anxious
for peace with Russia as it would give him a free hand
in devoting all his energies to the reconstruction of
Europe and the war against Great Britain. Russia's
endorsement of his nepotism in the disposition of the
thrones of Westphalia, Holland and Naples, and her
acquiescence in his "continental system" were great
prizes, for which he was ready to sacrifice Poland. *
At first he offered Prussian Poland to Russia.
That section together with the other part already
held by Russia was to constitute a politi-
T r h * Duchy cal entity united with the Russian Em-
oi AAr cirssw
1807-1815 pi re m tne person of the Tsar, as King
of Poland. Such a solution of the Polish
problem would have been satisfactory to Napoleon,
as it would have hampered Russia by putting upon
her various complicated obligations and thwarted her
policy of expansion. Moreover, such a union of Po-
land with Russia was bound to cause dissensions
between Russia and Prussia as well as with Austria.
Russian diplomacy saw the difficulties which Napo-
leon's plan would create and Alexander refused to
accept the title of King of Poland. As a compromise
376
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
measure, it was agreed to create an independent
Polish state embracing a part of Prussian Poland.
"At the request of the Russian Emperor," Napoleon
consented to Prussia's keeping the Polish territories,
FIG. 173 FREDERICK AUGUST, OF SAXONY, DUKE OF WARSAW
which she occupied after the first dismemberment.
Her shares in the second and third dismemberment
she was to lose. Bialystock and Bielsk, or the north-
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW
377
ern part of Podlasie, being the section where the
Uniate Church prevailed, was demanded by Russia.
Danzig became a free city under the joint protectorate
of the Kings of Prussia and Saxony. Thorn came
back into the new state, which was to be known as the
Duchy of Warsaw, and Frederick August, the Saxon
King, whom the constitution of May &, 1791, had desig-
nated as King Poniatowski's successor, was made
the reigning Duke thereof. The newly created Duchy,
as well as the city of Danzig, joined the continental
system designed to boycott English commerce. Thus
Poland became resurrected from the dead. Although
the size of the reconstructed state was small, consist-
FIG. 174 MEDAL IN COMMEMORATION OF THE EST.
DUCHY OF WARSAW
.BLISHMENT OF THE
ing of only 64,500 square miles, with a population of
2,400,000, yet it had great political significance for the
Poles, and by the guarantees it received for free navi-
gation on the. Vistula to the Baltic, its economic self-
sufficiency was assured. Its destinies, however, like
those of many other states created by Napoleon, de-
pended upon the fortunes of this military genius.
The makeshift character of the Duchy of Warsaw
was well recognized by the political leaders of Poland.
Many were discontented with it, particularly in view
of the heavy demands Napoleon made in compensa-
tion for its creation and his arbitrary methods which
378 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
precipitated grave social problems. Many of the f ormer
crown lands were given to French generals, and the
old Italian Legion, reorganized and increased to eight
thousand men, was sent to Westphalia, later to go to
Spain. In addition to the regular army of thirty
thousand, fresh levies were ordered for the "chevaux
legers" which, because of their handsome appearance
and gallant conduct, the Emperor designated for his
body guard regiment. They were put under command
of Count Vincent Krasinski, the father of one of
the greatest poets of Poland. With the opening of
hostilities in Spain they, like the other Polish troops,
were sent to that country. Here they took active part
in the desperate fighting that characterized this cam-
paign. They realized the injustice that was being
done to the brave Spaniards, but they were soldiers
and faithful to their duty. When the -siege of Sara-
gossa decimated the regiments^ of Chlopicki and
Konopka new detachments were sent to keep up the
Polish quota. Forever famous in military annals will
remain the Polish charge at Samo-Sierra, the gorge
which guarded the road to Madrid. The Spanish
batteries mowed down the French troops one after
another as they came within range of their guns. The
possession of the gorge was absolutely necessary.
Napoleon ordered General Montbrun to send a Polish
squadron of cavalry to take it. When the General
reported that it was impossible, the Emperor impa-
tiently replied: "Impossible? I do not know the word.
Nothing is impossible for my Poles." * And with their
usual daring the Polish light horse detachment under
the youthful John Kozietulski, swept, like a tornado
through the gorge. Few survived, but to the aston-
ishment of the French troops and even of Napoleon
*Kukiel, 1. c., p. 219.
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 379
himself, Samo-Sierra was taken, and on November 30,
1808, the road to Madrid lay open. Small, indeed, was
to be the recompense Napoleon offered Poland for her
inordinate sacrifices. Instead of reviving the generally
respected constitution of May 3rd, and changing it to
meet the new conditions, Napoleon devised for the
Duchy of Warsaw an instrument of his own making.
FIG. 175 JAN LEON HIPOLIT KOZIETULSKI, THE HERO OF SAMO-SIERRA
It gave large powers to the reigning Duke and limited
those of the Diet. No legislative bills could be intro-
duced except by the Government, and the Diet had no
power of discussion: it could either enact or reject
them. The code Napoleon, which superseded Polish
civil laws, created innumerable difficulties and called
380 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
for many adjustments. It is well known how attached
Napoleon was to his code and how firmly he insisted
that it be adopted without change, regardless of the
confusion which might follow its introduction. In a
letter to his brother Louis, King of Holland, he wrote
on November 13, 3807, "If you allow to touch (re-
toucher) the Code Napoleon it will no longer be the
Code Napoleon. . . . You are young, indeed, if you
think that a definite adoption of the code will intro-
duce chaos or be a cause of dangerous confusion in the
country."* While not guaranteeing freedom of speech
or assembly, the new constitution was, however, much
more democratic than that of May 3rd, in that it ex-
tended suffrage to almost all classes, and made all
citizens equal before the law. It also abolished serf-
dom. But in failing to provide land for the freed
peasants it created for the first time in Polish history
the new social class of the proletariat. The exodus of
the peasants from the country gave a stimulus to in-
dustry in the cities. Both commerce and manufacture
revived, despite the long period of exhaustion preced-
ing it, and despite the heavy taxes laid upon it as well
as upon agriculture to maintain the army and to meet
the other numerous French requisitions. It is re-
markable, though characteristic of Polish spirit, that
in spite of the heavy drafts and unsettled conditions of
the time, public education received painstaking care
and sustained attention. The Department of Educa-
tion, under the enlightened guidance of Staszyc and
Stanislav Kostka Potocki, established numerous
primary schools. While during the ten years of the
Prussian regime only two hundred and fifty schools
were opened, their number increased to one thousand
and one hundred when the Poles took charge of edu-
*M. Handelsman, "Napoleon a Polska," Warsaw, E. Wende et Co.,
1913, p. 11.
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW
381
cation, which then became entirely emancipated from
the blighting effects of the former ecclesiastical con-
trol. The episcopate vehemently protested against
this change as well as against the Napoleonic code,
which allowed civil marriages and divorce, and did not
provide for penalties in cases of non-observance of
religious rites. The protests were unheeded. The
Polish nation had become thoroughly modernized in
the opening decade of the XlXth century.
(Drawing by Alexander Orlowskil
FIG. 176 EAGLE SYMBOLIZING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DUCHY
OF WARSAW
The first session of the Diet of the Duchy of War-
saw met on March 9, 1809, in the same building
where the Four Years' Diet had sat,
Pro\kms r under the same President, Stanislav
Malachowski, and in the presence of the
Duke whom, in 1791 they had chosen to succeed
Poniatowski as King. The solemn and dignified
proceedings of the Diet, the unanimity in its work and
readiness to meet the extreme burdens imposed upon
the country by Napoleon, indicated that a deep
change had taken place in Polish life since the great
catastrophe which had befallen the country. The
382 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
fiscal and economic problems which became aggra-
vated by the introduction of the new civil code, by the
enormous war taxes and by the flood of worthless
Prussian money thrown upon the country during the
Prussian occupation were ably met by the wise Fi-
nance Minister Lubienski.
At the time when economic restoration of the
Duchy was proceeding with success and social rela-
tions were adjusting themselves to the
The War with changed conditions, war was forced
thTconquest upon the country by Austria's challenge
of Gaiida, 1809 to Napoleon. One of the four Austrian
armies, under Archduke Ferdinand, ap-
peared on the frontier of the Duchy on April 14, 1809.
Taken by surprise, the government ordered general
mobilization. A part of the regular Polish army was
in France at the time and another part was doing gar-
rison duty in the Prussian fortresses, leaving only
thirteen thousand ready for immediate action. Headed
by the valiant Prince Joseph Poniatowski, they offered
an obstinate resistance during the bloody battle of
Raszyn, to the south of Warsaw. The Austrian
army was three times as large as the army of the
Duchy. It was necessary to abandon Warsaw and
to withdraw to the right bank of the Vistula. The
government moved to Thorn. All the Austrian ef-
forts to cross the Vistula were, however, in vain.
Even Warsaw's suburb, Praga, could not be taken.
While the Austrian troops were exhausting them-
selves in their unsuccessful attempts to get at the
right bank of the Vistula, Poniatowski crossed the
Austrian frontier to liberate Galicia. Soon he took
Lublin, Sandomir, Przemysl and Lemberg. The
population of Galicia rose against their oppressors
and formed regiments to help Poniatowski. The
Galician magnates, however, looked askance upon the
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW
383
Duchy of Warsaw because of its democratic reforms
and the abolition of serfdom and regarded with dis-
favor Poniatowski's activities. They were laying
plans for a reconstruction of the country under a
Hapsburg or under the scepter of the Tsar, and were
accordingly carrying on negotiations with General
Golitsin who arrived with a- Russian corps ostensibly
to help Napoleon, but in reality to hamper the dis-
quieting conquests of the Polish arms. He frustrated
FIG. 177 THE MILITARY DECORATIONS OF PRINCE JOSEPH
PONIATOWSKI
many of Poniatowski's plans and helped the Aus-
trians when they returned from the Duchy to concen-
trate in Galicia. The fear of Napoleon lest the ag-
grandizement of Poland cause displeasure in St.
Petersburg, resulted in the order that Polish con-
quests be made in his name and not that of the Duchy,
although all operations were carried on by Polish arms
exclusively. This naturally caused discontent in
Galicia and aroused suspicion. Because of the vari-
384 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
ous hindrances put in his way, and particularly those
of the "allied" Russian army, Poniatowski withdrew
from Eastern Galicia westward and took Cracow.
Before he entered the city the French General Mon-
det turned the city over to the Russian commander
and only Poniatowski's threat to open fire upon the
Russians caused their abandonment of the city, which
was then taken over by a Polish garrison. Mean-
while Napoleon's victory at Wagram ended the war.
The Poles who conquered Galicia and left thousands
on the battlefields had a right to expect that she
would be added to the Duchy. But the ever-vigilant
Russian diplomacy made it impossible. Only west-
ern Galicia as far as the River San, a district covering
33,000 square miles with a million and a half inhab-
itants, came back into the Polish State. Again all the
former crown lands in that territory were to be given
over to the French generals and once more had the
Pole? the sad occasion to learn how parsimonious and
reserved Napoleon was with reference to them. In
the last campaign they had engaged over sixty thou-
sand Austrians and had kept the Prussians from turn-
ing against the French, yet even the fruits of con-
quests in their own country, made wholly by their
own sacrifices and endeavors, were denied them in a
degree they were morally and legally entitled to ex-
pect. Yet the fact that the Duchy was growing; that
the City of Cracow with all its national sanctuaries
and the university was again free; that a valiant and
glorious army was in existence, gave faith and as-
surance, in spite of the iniquities suffered, that the
policy of an alliance with the Corsican was the best
and would eventually bring the country to its cov-
eted goal.
All plans were soon to be shattered. Napoleon's
too ambitious undertaking miscarried. One ot the
The DUCHYof WARSAW
Territories conquered \
by the armies ofthe Duchy
inthe year 1809.
56 1
386 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
causes of the war of 1812 was the existence of the
Duchy. For it. was against the tradi-
J he tions of Russia harking back to Peter
Franco-Prus- ,, ~ T -i T> "ui
sian War tne ^ jreat j na Y> to Ivan the 1 errible, to
look complacently at the existence of
Poland outside of Russian domination. In spite of
Napoleon's continuous assurances that "the danger-
ous Polish dreams" as Alexander called them, would
never be permitted realization, the Russian Tsar was
forever restive. He demanded that the word "Poles"
FIG. 178 THE POLISH MILITARY CROSS
be not used in public documents, that Polish orders
be abolished and that the Polish army be considered
as a part of that of Saxony. The Russian fear of the
restoration of Poland was one of the trumps in Napo-
leon's hand which, together with a display of France's
enormous resources in men, he intended to use to
intimidate Russia and to browbeat her. This ex-
plains his real unpreparedness for the Russian cam-
paign and his ambiguous behavior with reference to
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 387
the Poles. He continued to assure them of the sin-
cerity of his purpose and requested a further increase
in the army to 80,000 men and 23,000 horses, and the
speedy completion of the fortress of Modlin (known
now by the Russian name of Novo-Georgievsk) and
some others, but made no direct political promises.
When in June a special French ambassador arrived at
Warsaw and the reigning Duke turned over the whole
government to the Council of Ministers, it became
evident that great events were near at hand. The
Diet assembled to take steps preparatory to the im-
pending war. Napoleon suggested that a general
confederation be organized and that he be petitioned
to restore Poland. He intimated that Austria would
be willing to cede Galicia for the control of certain
other territories. In fact, by the secret treaty which
Napoleon made with the Austrian ruler on March 14,
1812, the Illyrian provinces were to constitute the
prize for the return of Galicia. As had always been
the case in times of European conflagration, various
bait was thrown out to catch Polish support, so in the
war of 1812 Russia also made a polite bow before her
"beloved" sister and the Tsar offered, through his old
comrade Czartoryski a present to her, in the form of
reconstruction of the ancient kingdom in its former
boundaries, abutting on the Dnieper and Dvina and
including Galicia. He was to give the resurrected
country a liberal constitution and a king in his own
person, but demanded that Poniatowski betray Napo-
leon and bring the army over in support of Russia.
Czartoryski refused to act. In Lithuania, however,
the Tsar's proposals found many supporters led
by Prince Michael Oginski and the able and brilliant
Prince Drucki-Lubecki. They even contemplated the
creation of an independent Duchy of Lithuania.
Meanwhile, the "second Polish war," as Napoleon
388 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
called it, broke out. When he appeared at Kovno the
French Emperor wore the cap and uniform of a Polish
officer. To arouse Lithuania-he sent to Wilno as a
vanguard of his host, a Polish regiment commanded
by Prince Dominik Radziwill, a scion of the great
Lithuanian family. The dispersion, however, of the
Polish regiments among the various French corps was
strongly resented. For nowhere else had Napoleon
a more loyal and devoted ally than the Poles who
stood by him through thick and thin and did not
abandon him until his very last hour. They formed
a striking contrast to the Prussians under Yorck, who
as soon as Napoleon's defeat became known joined
the Russians, as did also the Austrians. At the open-
ing of hostilities, the Warsaw Diet formed a confed-
eration calling upon the people to defend their coun-
try. The popular response to a firery speech made
by Minister Matuszewicz in the course of which he
exclaimed: "Poland will be resurrected. What do
I say? Poland exists already !" was enormous. The
crowds were wild with enthusiasm. All believed in
Napoleon's genius. "God is with Napoleon and
Napoleon is with us." And the splendid Polish le-
gions, led by such brilliant generals as Dombrowski,
Poniatowski, Sokolnicki and others, who had no peers
in any contemporary army, once more carried the
fame of Polish heroism along the same roads which
two centuries before, in the times of Batory and
Wladyslav IV saw the banners of the White Eagle
in a triumphant onward march to Moscow. The
memories of Zolkiewski and Gosiewski came back.
But once more it was necessary to retire. Napoleon
was defeated and his grand army dispersed. Enor-
mous losses were suffered by the Poles. Over a thou-
sand officers fell and only six thousand men returned.
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW
389
But they brought back all their artillery and the
eternal glory of their sacrifices for the country and
her honor.
Under the guard of Polish uhlans, Napoleon fled
Russia which had proved to be the grave of his
ambitions. His defeat sounded also the
death knell of the Duchy of Warsaw and
filled with dismay the hearts of the
Poles, who felt that they would again
fall prey to the neighboring hawks. The Russian
The End of
the Duchy of
Warsaw
FIG. 179 THE PALACE OP PRINCE JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI AT JABL.ONNA
Emperor continued to assure the Poles of his friend-
ship and proclaimed his amnesty to Lithuania but at
the same time covenanted with Prussia for another
partition in Poland on February 10, 1813, at Kalisz.
Before the Russian army reached the Duchy, the
Polish government was discussing the possibilities of
offering armed resistance to the invaders; many, like
Prince Czartoryski advised an alliance with Russia.
A great deal of valuable time was lost in discussion.
390 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Meanwhile, it was learned that Schwarzenberg, the
commander of the Austrian army, which constituted
the right wing of Napoleon's host had practically
betrayed his former ally and in view of that, the de-
fence of Warsaw became an impossibility. Prince
Poniatowski gathered all his troops, ordnance and
ammunition and moved to Cracow. The Austrian
army in doubtful attitude was near by; a Russian
corps under Sacken was stationed in the vicinity of
Cracow; and the pro-Russian party in Poland was
bombarding him with persuasions to submit to Rus-
sia. He well realized the difficult situation in which
he found himself and the responsibility that rested
upon him, but he could not be convinced that an al-
liance with Russia was for the best interests of the
country and his exalted conception of duty revolted
at any suggestion of a betrayal. Seeing that he would
be unable to carry out his plan of a fight to the end,
and abandoned by many of his friends, he determined
to leave Poland and to join Napoleon's reorgan-
ized Grand Army, "There can be no compromise
with honor," he said, and undertook the march in
spite of the difficulties which lay before him in cross-
ing hostile Austrian domains. He left Poland, never
to return. His withdrawal was quickly followed by
untoward events. The whole Duchy, with the ex-
ception of a few fortresses, was occupied by Russian
soldiery and used as a base of operations against
Napoleon. The Polish government, left the country.
Its place was taken by a "Supreme Council" com-
posed of supporters of Russia and presided over by
Lanskoy, a Russian Senator. Among the members
was also a representative of Prussia, by the name
of Christopher Colomb, to look after the Prussian in-
terests, as, under the above mentioned treaty of
Kalisz, the Russian Emperor promised to return to
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 391
Prussia the Polish provinces which Napoleon had
taken from her. The allies suffered several defeats
at the hands of Napoleon. He was approaching
(Portrait by M. Bacciarelli)
FIG. 180 PRINCE JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI
Breslau and laying plans for the reconquest of Poland
when the wily Metternich induced him to agree to a
truce and to meet at a convention in Prague. Valu-
392
able time gained by the cessation of hostilities made
possible the formation of a closer alliance with Eng-
land and Austria as active participants. Emboldened
by the alliances made, Austria presented at Prague a
series of demands to which Napoleon obviously could
not accede. The first demand concerned the divi-
sion of the Duchy of Warsaw among her three neigh-
bors. When Napoleon refused, Austria declared
war. The subsequent events concerning Napoleon's
FIG. 181 THE PAL.ACE OF PRINCE JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI AT WARSAW
fortunes need not be retold here, except to point out
the loyalty of the Polish troops to Napoleon and their
undaunted courage in the discharge of the difficult
duties assigned to them. During the battle of Leip-
zig Prince Poniatowski was made Marshal of France.
Because of the treachery of the Saxons and Wurtem-
bergians, Prince Joseph's Polish corps was put into
a most precarious position from which, however,
it emerged triumphantly. The rearguard action
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW 393
after the retreat from Leipzig was entrusted to Ponia-
towski. Here the Prince was wounded. When the
bridges over the River Elster were destroyed too
early, he was threatened with capture. Though
severely wounded and profusely bleeding, he jumped
into the stream with his steed and endeavored to
swim across the rapid stream. "II faut mourir en
brave," he said. Here a shot pierced his left lung and
with the words "Poland" and "honor" he fell from his
horse and disappeared under the water.*
The death of their beloved hero and the appoint-
ment of the unpopular Prince Sulkowski in his place,
together with reflection upon the futility of further
sacrifices, caused the Polish legions to demand release
from duty. Apprised of this, Napoleon addressed
them in person, pointing out that such a step on their
part would not help their country and would but serve
to tarnish their past glorious record and their sol-
dierly honor. By staying with him, he said, they could
yet serve their country, because he would never for-
get Poland. It is easy to surmise that they did not
abandon him. Sulkowski resigned from command
and his place was taken by the untiring Jan Henryk
Dombrowski. In the campaign of 1814 Polish blood
flowed profusely at the battlefields of Brienne,
Rheims, Arcis sur Aube and Montereau. At Arcis
sur Aube a battalion of Polish infantry commanded
by Jan Skrzynecki saved Napoleon's life. Napo-
leon's admiration for Polish chivalry was genuine
and it is significant that the only squadron which ac-
companied him to and remained with him in his exile
on the Island of Elba was that of the Polish chevaux
legers under Colonel Paul Jerzmanowski. By article
29 of the Treaty of Paris, inserted at the personal re-
* S. Askenazy: "Ksiazf Jozef," Posen: K. Rzepecki, 1913, p. 205.
394 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
quest of Napoleon, the Polish troops were guaranteed
a safe return to their homes and were allowed to carry
with them their arms and military decorations. "In
this way the small but armed companies were recog-
nized as the representatives of the Polish state. The
Congressional Kingdom had its birth here. . . . The
vanquished received honors from their conquerors.
Sad but proud was the return march to their native
FIG. 182 COL. PAUL JERZMANOWSKI
country. Through a long mourning road General
Sokolnicki carried the body of the supreme com-
mander, during life his rival, and two hundred Craco-
vians formed the last escort of Prince Joseph." *
Grateful memories still surround their heroism and
constitute an inexhaustible well of inspiration for the
present-day efforts of Poland. The returning legions
were received with great honors at Warsaw. The
body of the Prince, who was the incarnation of Po-
land's conception of honor and devotion to duty and
*M. Kukiel, 1. c., p. 470.
NAPOLEON AND THE DUCHY OF WARSAW
395
country, was first interred at Warsaw but subse-
quently laid to rest in Cracow in the old royal cathe-
dral. The City of Cracow at the time was the only
spot in the old vast domains of the Polish Republic
that was free. The other sections had come under
the sovereignty of Russia, Austria and Prussia, by the
provisions of a new partition agreed upon at the Con-
gress at Vienna.
FIG. 183 PRINCE JOSEPH'S PALACE AT
STARA SIENIAWA
FIG. 184 KOSCIUSZKO HILL, AT CRACOW
CHAPTER XVII
The Congress of Vienna and the Kingdom of Poland
The grim injustice of Poland's dismemberment
was universally recognized and expressions of sym-
pathy were lavishly bestowed upon the
unhappy nation. Fortunately, sentimen-
Partition of .. . J / . ,
Poland tahty was soon to give place to practical
considerations. The danger to the politi-
cal equilibrium of Europe, which this act of injustice
created, became clearly discernible after the smoke
of the Napoleonic wars had cleared away and the
representatives of the chief European countries came
together to redraw the map of the continent. It was
then discovered that Russia, whose civilizing mission
lay in Asia, had already penetrated deep into Europe
and was in possession of strong claims to the whole
of Poland. And sly Prussia was ready to second
Russia's demands if only by so doing she could grab
Saxony. Neither France nor England cherished the
idea of Russia's becoming an European power, and
Austria resisted the enrichment of her neighbors by
the large Polish acquisitions. The German states
of Bavaria and Hanover, as well as Holland, opposed
the plans of Russia and Prussia. Formidable quarrels
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 357.
>
/
arose over the claims of these two countries, and for
a time it looked as if only by force of arms could the
matter be brought to an issue. The reappearance of
the Corsican in France called for united action and
for a speedy close of the negotiations. The Polish
question was settled in a manner that could bring
nothing but bitter disappointment to the Poles. The
Congress sanctioned the admittedly illegal dismem-
berment of Poland, which has proved to be a curse
and calamity to the country and a cause of periodi-
cally recurring violent disturbances, as had been
predicted by Lord Castlereagh, the British Plenipo-
tentiary at the Congress. In a note to his govern-
ment, referring to the vicious settlement of the Polish
question, he wrote: "The undersigned adhering to
all his former representations on this subject has only
sincerely to hope that none of those evils may result
from this measure to the tranquility of the north, and
to the general equilibrium of Europe, which it has
been his painful duty to anticipate." *
The Congress, which assembled ostensibly to do
justice to the nations of Europe, and to guarantee to
them independence and liberty, did not take into con-
sideration the desires and feelings of the subdued
nations and of the Polish nation in particular. It
sanctioned the fifth partition of Poland. On the
memorable day of May 3, 1815, Russia signed the
treaties with Austria and Prussia by which the lion's
share of the Duchy of Warsaw went to her, and the
western part of the last independent Polish state
became annexed to Prussia under the name of the
Grand Duchy of Posen. The districts of Tarnopol
and Zbaraz, in Eastern Galicia, went back to Austria,
*Barker, 1. c., p. 100.
398 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
as well as a section in West Galicia comprising the
rich Wieliczka salt mines. The City of Cracow, with
its immediate vicinity, was made an independent
republic under the guardianship of the three parti-
tioning powers. In 1846 it was annexed by Austria.
With this exception the boundaries of the three
Polands remained fixed, as determined by the Con-
gress of Vienna, until the outbreak of the present
great war. Four-fifths of the Polish Republic of
1772 came under Russian rule, and the remaining
one-fifth was almost equally divided between Austria
and Prussia. Henceforth the history of Poland is
the history of the three sections, developing under
entirely different conditions; the Russian part, how-
ever, by reason of its size and the fact that the Rus-
sian Tsar assumed the title of King of Poland, oc-
cupies the centre of the stage. The severance of
the political bonds of the Polish people was mitigated,
in a measure, by the provisions of the treaties between
Russia and the other two powers, which guaranteed
to the inhabitants of the former Polish Republic coni-
plete freedom in their social and economic inter-
course within the boundaries. of the country as they
were in 1772, before the first partition took place.
There were to be no tariff walls between the three
parts of Poland, and transportation and navigation
on all the rivers and canals was to be unobstructed.
Article I of the Treaty of Vienna guaranteed to
the Poles as "the respective subjects of Russia, Austria
and Prussia," representation in government and pre-
servation of their national institutions "to be regulated
in accordance with the political precepts which the
several governments would consider useful and advis-
able for them." This qualifying phrase was couched
in language too flexible to supply lasting foundations
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 399
for the future political structures which were to be
reared in the three sections of Poland. Painfully did
the Poles realize their precarious situation ! Before
the Congress assembled the venerable and aged Kos-
ciuszko was assured by such statesmen as Lord Grey,
Talleyrand and Metternich that the safety of Europe
depended upon the restoration of Poland. He stayed
in Vienna during the sessions of the Congress, and
left, brokenhearted, for Switzerland after the dis-
astrous agreement concerning Poland was reached
by the Powers. He banished himself voluntarily to
the high mountains of Wilhelm Tell rather than to
die a slave in his own country, which he loved so ten-
derly and to which he was born a free citizen. Kos-
ciuszko is the symbol of Poland's strivings for inde-
pendence. The very mention of his name conjures
up exalted feelings of patriotism in the Polish breast.
Universal was the tribute paid to him upon his death
on October 15, 1817. Instead of erecting a monu-
ment in bronze to his memory, it was decided to build
something more lasting: a mountain. Approaching
Cracow, the city where the Dictator issued his
famous proclamation in 1794, one can see from a dis-
tance the Kosciuszko Hill, erected by the hands of the
people and completed, afteryears of gratuitous labor,
in 1823. It stands firm and forever over an urn con-
taining some earth from the battlefield of Raclawice,
where, with several thousand soldiers and two thou-
sand peasants armed with scythes, he won the first
victory over the Muscovite despoilers of his country.
The funeral of Kosciuszko, as well as the patri-
otic ceremony accompanying the obsequies of Prince
Joseph Poniatowski, whose body was
of Cracow brought from Warsaw to Cracow to be
laid beside the Polish Kings and heroes,
gave additional endearment to the picayune city-re-
400 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
public which contained most of the treasures and
memories of the past glories of the once mighty coun-
try, and was now the only free community within the
boundaries of old Poland. The Cracow republic com-
prised an area of one hundred and three square miles,
with a population of ninety-six thousand inhabitants,
twenty-five thousand of whom lived within the city
limits and the remainder in the villages surrounding
it. According to the constitution provided by the
Vienna Congress it was governed by a Senate com-
posed of thirteen members, and an Assembly of repre-
sentatives of the city and village population, of the
university, the church and the judiciary. The As-
sembly exercised legislative power, elected nine of the
thirteen Senators, had control over the budget and
over the executive branch of the government which
was centered in the person of the President of the
Senate. The Assembly met annually for several
weeks. The Code Napoleon was the civil law of the
republic. The judiciary was entirely independent of
the legislative and executive branches of the govern-
ment. A small army of five hundred militiamen
was put under the command of the President of the
Senate. In .1818 the original aristocratic character
of the little state was considerably modified by the
emancipation of the peasant serfs, the recognition of
full freedom of speech and assembly, the prohibition
of confiscation of estates and the guarantee of per-
sonal immunity from arrest. Owing to the energy
and ability of the first President, Count Stanislav
Wodzicki, the little republic soon began to prosper
economically and carried on a brisk trade with the
other sections of Poland. On account of its political
status, historical associations and ancient university,
Cracow became the Mecca of the Poles.
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 401
Soon after the treaty of the Vienna Congress was
signed the Prussian troops occupied the section of the
country that was apportioned to the
Hohen'zollerns, and the Polish flag fly-
Posei m ver the City Hall of Posen was
substituted by that of the newly created
Duchy. King Friedrick Wilhelm III in an address
to the Poles assured them that they would not be
called upon to renounce their nationality; that they
would have a share in the constitutional rights he was
about to bestow upon his Prussian subjects in con-
formity with the promise made by him during the
French invasion ; and that they would have a provin-
cial constitution of their own, with complete freedom
of worship and national education, and an unob-
structed right to use their native tongue in private
and official life. He appointed Prince Antoni Radzi-
will, a Pole, related by marriage to the Hohenzollerns,
the first Governor General of the Duchy, and other
high offices were similarly filled by Poles. An attempt
was made to create a special German-Polish military
corps, but the Poles refused to serve in it. At first
conditions were satisfactory, but in a short time re-
action began to set in. First the districts lying on
the right bank of the Vistula were severed from the
Duchy, annexed to West Prussia and put under strict
German rule. Then attempts at changing the laws
were made in the districts where there was the
slightest admixture of Germans. The Polish officials
were removed and Prussians appointed. The use of
the Polish language in the administration and the
judiciary was limited, and the schools lost their
purely Polish character by the appointment of Ger-
man teachers. Radziwill became a mere figurehead.
Prussian officials with instructions from Berlin be-
came the real governors of the Duchy, and the old
402 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
policy of playing off the peasants against the land-?
owners was revived. In 1824 the Prussian govern- 1
ment abolished serfdom and recognized the right of
the Polish peasants to the land they tilled. It was a
very inexpensive way of gaining the loyalty and grati-
tude of the peasants and of arousing bitter class an-
tagonism between the two strata of the Polish people.
This mischevious principle of "divide et impera" was
subsequently invoked by Austria and Russia in their
dealings with Poland. In Silesia, where the land-
owners were Germans and the peasantry indigenous
Poles, the Prussian government was less liberal and
the peasants did not get land with their freedom.
Here the government favored the land aristocracy.
The emancipation of the peasants was, however, a
step in the right direction. It was a nearsighted
policy on the part of the Polish landowners to wait
until this reform had been brought about by a hostile
government and exploited for the purpose of sowing
the seeds of discord between the higher and lower
classes, and thus preventing solid national harmony
and unity in the Duchy of Posen.
In Galicia conditions were still worse. By
making the landowners responsible for the collection
Q j. . of taxes from their peasants the govern-
ment created bitter antagonism between
the two elements. Moreover, the ultra-conservative
Hapsburgian government, dominated by the arch-re-
actionary of his time, Prince Metternich, did even
less than Prussia to promote constitutional and liberal
government in the Polish province of the Empire.
The pledges made at the Congress sank into complete
oblivion. At first a semblance of a representative
government was introduced in the form of a very
cumbersome and undemocratic machinery, but it was
soon superseded by a rigid administrative bureau-
The Constitu-
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 403
cracy which, in order to weaken the Poles still further,
endeavored to foster animosities between them and
their Ruthenian cousins in the eastern section of the
province.
The most liberal rule was introduced in Russian
Poland, that is in that section of ancient Poland
which was established by the Congress
of Vienna as a sovereign state (etat)
tion of the i *_ , j i J.-A A*
Kingdom of a which was united by a constitution
Poland with the throne of Russia," and to which
special articles of the treaty of Vienna
were devoted. The basis of the union was the consti-
tution. The above quotecl flexible clause, leaving the
form of internal organization to the discretion of the
monarch did not apply to this part of Poland. The
boundaries of the newly created kingdom were care-
fully defined by the Powers. The Tsar, however, ex-
pressly reserved to himself the right of making such
additions to Poland as he might think fit. "This
reservation had in view the eventual annexation to
the Kingdom of Poland of at least two parts of Lithu-
ania." * The rights of the Russian Tsar with refer-
ence to it were predicated on the existence of a written
constitution. The new r Kingdom was a distinct state,
united with Russia in the person of the monarch, but
not incorporated into the Empire. Article 4 of the
existing fundamental laws of Russia clearly recog-
nized this relation w r ith reference to the Kingdom of
Poland, as well as to the Great Duchy of Finland.
The principles of the Constitution of the newly
created state were agreed upon by the Tsar in Vienna
and were incorporated in a document signed by him
on May 25, 1815. Accordingly he appointed a com-
mission, with Prince Czartoryski as chairman, to
*Prof. S. Askenazy "Poland and the Polish Revolution" In:
Cambridge Modern History, vol X, p. 446.
TheKINGDOMofPOLAND
as reconstructed .by the
Congress of Vienna
1815
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 405
work out a draft of the constitution which, on No-
vember 27, 1815, he solemnly sealed. It was pro-
claimed on December 24th of the same- year, and the
temporary government which had been set up in 1813
under the direction of Lanskoy and Novosiltsoff was
FIG. 185 THE RUSSIAN GRAND DUKE CONSTANTINE
abolished. The two Russian plenipotentiaries re-
mained, however, in Warsaw, as did the Tsar's
brother, Grand Duke Constantine, whom the Tsar
appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Polish army.
406 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Constantine was a born despot, a man of unbridled
temper, a maniacal pedant who nourished an invet-
erate contumely for constitutional government.
Though he had a liking for the Poles, yet his uncouth
manners and severe military dicipline, with heavy
corporal punishment for the slightest infringments
of it, made his presence in Warsaw a source of gen-
eral discontent and irritation. The Polish officers
of the higher and lower ranks, accustomed as they
were to gentlemanly treatment and honorable deal-
ings, felt outraged by the Muscovite behavior of the
Grand Duke, and many of them committed suicide
in despair. His cruelty knew no bounds. Revolt-
ing accounts are given of the tortures inflicted on
prisoners. The Grand Duke's wantonness had the
effect of undoing all the liberties the constitution
guaranteed. Numerous persons were thrown into
prison at his whim. Students were put to labor in
paving and repairing streets. He became a veritable
terror of Warsaw. Czartoryski was hampered by
him in his preliminary work of organization, and in-
timated to the Tsar the desirability of his removal.
But the clique at the St. Petersburg Court and the
influential elements of Russia, who opposed tooth-
and-nail all the plans of the Tsar with reference to
Poland, which, in their judgment were dangerous to
the Empire and deprived thousands of Russians of
lucrative positions in the newly acquired country,
prevailed and his recall was not effected. Similarly
impossible was the removal of Lanskoy and Novosilt-
soff, who enjoyed their extremely well paid situa-
tions, and who, pretending to be devoted friends of
Poland, were, in reality, her worst enemies. They
kept the court camarilla at St. Petersburg advised of
every movement in Polish life and directed all the
efforts at destroying the liberal constitution of the
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 407
FIG. ISC PRINCE ADAM CZARTORYSKI (1770-1861)
408 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Kingdom. It was at Novosiltsoff s insistence that
the old Polish principle of "neminem captivabimus,
nisi jure victum" was substituted by "neminem capti-
vari permittemus, nisi jure victum," and thus the
power of illegal imprisonment was made a preroga-
tive of the Crown or its representatives.
The principal provisions of the constitution
signed by Emperor Alexander I guaranteed freedom
of religious worship, equality of all citizens before the
law, freedom of speech and inviolability of private
property. The Polish language was to be used in all
branches of the government as well as in the army.
All offices were to be filled by Poles exclusively. The
legislative power was to be vested in a Diet composed
of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. The ex-
ecutive power was entrusted to an Administrative
Council composed of the Viceroy and five Ministers,
all appointed by the Tsar of Russia in his capacity as
King of Poland. He also appointed a Secretary of
State, whose function it was to act as intermediary
between the King and the country. The Ministers
were responsible before the Diet, and countersigned
all royal decrees as well as those of the Viceroy.
During the absence of the King his power was vested
in the State Council, composed of the Viceroy, the
Ministers, special counsellors and referees. The
State Council's chief duties were to prepare proposals
for legislative enactments. For administrative pur-
poses the country was divided into eight provinces,
headed by woyevodas. The judiciary was made in-
dependent of the executive branch of the government.
The judges were appointed for life and could not be
recalled. All citizens, without distinction of social
status and religion had equal rights at the courts.
The competence of the criminal courts did not include
cases of high treason or offences of high state officials.
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 40'J
Such cases were tried by the Diet sitting as a Court.
The King- was Commander-in-Chief of the Polish
army, whose size depended upon the budgetary ap-
propriations of the Diet. The constitution provided
that the Polish army could not be used outside of
the boundaries of Europe. The command and uni-
forms of the army were Polish. The coronation of
the King was to take place at Warsaw. A Polish
Viceroy was the representative of the King in civil
matters, and the Polish language was recognized as
the official language of the kingdom. The constitu-
tion prohibited deportations to Siberia.
Such were the main provisions of the constitu-
tion which was worked out by the Czartoryski Com-
mittee and sanctioned by Tsar Alexander I. It was
very liberal when contrasted with the preceding con-
stitutions and when considered in the light of the
reactionary currents which prevailed in Europe since
the unholy "Holy Alliance." Official as well as un-
official Russia was much displeased with it, and
brought strong pressure to bear upon the Emperor to
dissuade him from adopting it, and particularly from
extending it to Lithuania, Podolia and Ukraine. The
famous Russian historian, Karamzin, wrote to the Tsar
reminding him that he had no right to separate the
Polish provinces that were added to Russia in Cather-
ine's time. "Our sword conquered Poland and this is
our law," he wrote. The Tsar, however, would not allow
himself to be swayed from his sworn pledges. He
came to Warsaw on November 12, 1818, and charmed
everybody by his cordiality and apparent frankness.
He said he knew of the outrages of his brother Con-
stantine, but did not think it politic to recall him
because he would then become an enemy of the Poles
and would work against them. He advised the
people to suffer him and to coax him as well as the
410 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
other Russians into friendship, and then added: "I
desire to unite you with Lithuania, Podolia and
Ukraine, but this requires patience and confidence on
your part and dexterity on mine. It is necessary to
steal Poland from the Russians. ("II faut aux Russes
escamoter la Pologne.") Such utterances on the part
of the Russian monarch were received with delight
and gave rise to great hopes for the future. His
FIG. 187 GEN. JOSEPH ZAYONCZEK
failure, however, to appoint Prince Czartoryski, the
author of the Constitution, to the post of Viceroy,
was a severe disappointment. Public opinion desig-
nated him for this exalted office. Czartoryski's char-
acter and intimate comradeship with the Emperor
made him peculiarly fit for the position in the popular
mind. General Zayonczek, upon whom this great
honor was bestowed at the request of the Grand
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 411
Duke Constantine, was a man whose servility to
foreign interests was demonstrated during the Napo-
leonic period. Elevated to high rank by Napoleon,
he became entirely devoted to him, and did not hesi-
tate to sacrifice Poland's interests to those of the
French Emperor. He was a man of narrow mind
and haughty demeanor, and his attitude to Prince
Joseph Poniatowski, when the latter was War Min-
ister of the Duchy of Warsaw, was so distasteful and
so humiliating to national dignity that the news of
his appointment as Viceroy was received in Poland
with a feeling bordering on consternation. Unfor-
tunately the fear of the people was wholly justified.
He became a pliable tool in the hands of Constantine
and the Russian agent Novosiltsoff, and never so
much as attempted to protest against the violations
of the constitution on the part of the Russians. The
protests of the press and of some members of the Diet
were of no avail.
Echoes of the happenings in Spain, Naples and
France between the years 1818 and 1820, reverber-
ated in the Polish press and served as
Reaction an excuse ^ or introducing a government
censorship on periodic publications, ex-
tended presently to all prints and books. At the
opening of the second Diet in 1820, Alexander warned
the country against adopting the dangerous West
European liberalism. He also expressed great dis-
satisfaction with the proceedings of the Diet, at
which two government measures, one relating to the
method of criminal procedure and the other to the
method of fixing responsibility upon the ministers,
were rejected. He realized that the Diet did not
propose to be used as a rubber stamp for all official
measures and resolved to curb it. In the words of
Byron:
412 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
"How nobly gave he back to Poles their Diet,
Then told pugnacious Poland to be quiet."
Thanks only to the great abilities of Prince Xavier
Lubecki, the Minister of Finance, was it possible to
avert difficulties over the budget which, in violation
of the constitution, was not submitted to the Diet for
approval. Moreover, the budget did not specify the
FIG. 188 PRINCE XAVIER I..UBECKI, FINANCE MINISTER OF THE
CONGRESSIONAL KINGDOM
items of appropriation, and in this way afforded
means for an illegal diversion of moneys. By per-
xsuasive presentations at St. Petersburg, Lubecki was
able to save the treasury from being drained for un-
authorized purposes. He was also able to raise suf-
ficient taxes to preserve the organization of the
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 413
Kingdom. The Emperor had already intimated that
in view of the deficit "it would be necessary to change
the form of organization of the Kingdom in such a
way as to enable it to be self-supporting.''* It was
due to the genius and energy of Lubecki that suf-
ficient sums were raised and the need of changing the
constitutional groundwork of the Kingdom was ob-
viated. He also contributed greatly to the upbuilding
of the country. Thanks to his initiative a Land
Owners' Credit Association was organized in 1825,
and four years later he founded the Bank of Poland
at Warsaw. In spite of his great achievements the
Finance Minister was hated in Poland because of his
inconsiderateness, and because of his unbounded de-
votion and loyalty to Russia.
The growing disregard for the Constitution on
the part of the Russian Emperor and his representa-
tives affected public life generally. The press was
trammeled by a severe censorship. Public education
next came under the careful scrutiny of the Govern-
ment, with a view of blotting out any liberal doctrines
which might possibly find their way into the minds of
the youth. To achieve this end the Government en-
couraged the aggressiveness of the Church and wel-
comed religious interference in educational matters.
The great educator, Stanislav Kostka Potocki, who
had done so much to raise educational standards and
to fight obscurantism, was forced to resign his posi-
tion as Minister of Education in spite of his brilliant
achievements, chief among which was the founding
of the University of Warsaw in 1838. He was a Free
Mason and an enemy of religious hypocrisy which he
so vividly depicted in his novel called "The Journey
to Darktown." It was through his efforts that Pius
*Smolenski, 1. c. Vol. IV,' p. 68.
414 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
VII ordered the closing of about a score of cloisters in
Poland. With the hydra of reaction raising its head
high, a man of such convictions as Potocki, though
entirely faithful to the Government and recognized
as the greatest authority in educational matters, had
to go, clearing the way for one Szaniawski, a man of
considerable intellectual attainment but devoid of
moral principle. He began his career as a revolu-
tionary and ended it as a reactionary, of so obtuse a
type as to fit him for the holding of a ministerial post
in the Polish constitutional cabinet of Alexander I
toward the end of that monarch's life, when he finally
succumbed to the form of dementia known as re-
ligious mysticism. The standard of the schools soon
declined under the strict police regime of Szaniawski
and his associates, who stifled every expression of
independent thought or action. This coincided with
the high tide of reaction which flooded the whole of
Europe at the time, and caused the transformation of
societies like those of the Free Masons and the Car-
bonari into secret political organizations. Greece,
Italy and Spain lived through revolutions, and politi-
cal attentats were not infrequent in France and Ger-
many. The members of the Holy Alliance met fre-
quently, and after each successive conference the
repressions in their respective countries became
stricter and more unbearable. Emperor Alexander
attended all these conferences, and grew more con-
vinced of the dangers of liberalism and constitution-
alism. The arbitrariness of Constantine, who had an
inborn aversion to all popular rights, knew no bounds
as the estrangement of his sovereign brother from his
former beliefs grew wider. There was no such thing
as personal safety in constitutional Poland. People
were arrested and thrown into dungeons on the
slightest provocation. The prisons were overcrowded
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 415
and the suspects subjected to cruel inquisitions. The
progressive sections of the Code Napoleon were
eliminated, a new reactionary criminal code intro-
duced and flogging made legal. The army was cleared
of all the officers who had served in the Napo-
leonic campaigns and who had a gentlemanly concep-
tion of honor. Mechanical drill and lifeless routine
took the place of old gallantry. The maniacal Con-
stantine was so given over to the observance of rules
that the best officers were compelled to resign for
breaks of the most trivial character. The Diet
objected to all these flagrant violations of the funda-
mental laws of the land, and was finally muzzled by
an imperial order prohibiting the publication of Diet
debates.
In the year 1825 Alexander died and Russia
expected the advent of Constantine to the throne
of the Tsars. When the news of his
resignation, on account of his marriage
Societies to a Polish woman, Joan Grudzinska,
became known, it created general unrest
throughout the Empire, of which the Russian revolu-
tionaries decided to take advantage in order to bring
about a change in the form of government. The
attempt was doomed to failure on account of the un-
preparedness of the masses. Even the troops which
supported the Dekabrists (the name by which the
revolutionaries were known) and shouted: "Long
live^Constantine and the Constitution," thought that
the constitution was the Grand Duke's wife. Tragic
was Poland's lot to be united with a nation of such
political immaturity ! Alexander's successor, Nicholas
I, was a true incarnation of Russia's spirit of that
time. His arbitrary character and the deep con-
tempt of the despot for every expression of indi-
vidualism and freedom augured ill for Poland. Al- '
1 6
416 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 1S9 THE UNIVERSITY OF WITjNO AND THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN
(On the right hand side is a Russian Orthodox Church)
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 417
though he swore to maintain the Polish Constitution,
his determination to do away even with the semblance
of constitutional government which remained to the
ill-fated country in the valley of the Vistula was un-
mistakably demonstrated by his acts. He failed to
appoint a Viceroy after Zayonczek's death in 1826,
and intensified the ruthless Russification policy inau-
gurated by his predecessor in Lithuania.
The conditions prevailing in Poland were as
paradise in comparison with what was going on in
Lithuania, a country of fine Polish cul-
Persecutions . ' J , ,
in Lithuania ture, with numerous schools and a
celebrated university at Wilno. The
Congress of Vienna did not guarantee a constitution
to Lithuania and Alexander, "the crafty Greek" as
Napoleon called him, did not try "to steal her away
from Russia," as he intimated he would do. That
section of the Polish Republic was completely at the
mercy of his minions. Some petty disturbances in a
boys' high school in 1822 were taken as an excuse for
wholesale arrests and inhuman persecution by the
same Novosiltsoff, who at one time had affected great
friendship for Poland. Many young men were
exiled to Siberia; prominent university professors
who betrayed patriotic tendencies were dismissed;
the rights and privileges of the University of Wilno
were curtailed; and finally, two years before his death,
Alexander proclaimed his famous manifesto against
all attempts at a reunion with "the injudicious Polish
nation," and ordered that henceforth all instruction
in Lithuania and other Polish provinces outside of
the Congressional Kingdom should be carried -on in
the. Russian language, and that all "excessive reason-
ing should be condemned.* Small wonder that under
* J. Grabiec, Dzieje Narodu Polskiego, p. 286.
418
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
such conditions a large number of secret patriotic
societies arose all over Poland and Lithuania with an
avowed aim of liberating Poland from Russian mis-
rule. Some of the societies had existed in Poland
for a long time. There always had been a party op-
posed to any compromise with Russia, skeptical of the
FIG. 190 MAJOR VALERIAN LUKASIrtSKI, PATRIOT AND MARTYR,
FOUNDER OF THE PATRIOTIC SOCIETY OF WARSAW
possibility of a symbiosis with that nation. Other
societies came into existence when Alexander's true
designs became apparent. They had members all
over the country, among university students as well
as among older and more mature men. The Patriotic
Society of Warsaw, founded by Major Valerian
Lukasinski, exercised a considerable influence. At
first it was a Free Mason lodge, but when these
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 419
lodges came under the ban of the law it took on the
aspect of a secret society, known at first as that of
the National Carbonari and subsequently as the Na-
tional Patriotic Society. It grew in membership as
the Russian atrocities increased and established a
number of provincial branches. When its existence
became known to Constantine, Lukasinski and his as-
sociates were arrested and put through a "third
degree" trial, notorious for its cruelty, and which was
repeated afterward in another connection. In Poland
the name of Lukasinski became a common designa-
FIG. 191 THOMAS ZAN, LEADER OF THE WILNO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
tion for intense suffering and inhuman torture. * Con-
trary to the constitutional law of the land the leaders
of the Society were tried by a martial court, and
though nothing except the practice of free masonry
could be established against them, they were sen-
tenced to many years of hard labor. The Lithuanian
societies had at first a purely literary and scientific
character. Such were the fraternities of university
students known as the Philomaths, Philarets and
others. Young men gathered there, read classic
works and presented their own productions, and dis-
420 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
cussed social and scientific problems. Novosiltsoff
suspected revolutionary tendencies, and disapproved
of the societies because they were centres whence Po-
lish culture radiated and retarded the progress of Rus-
sification. Among the members of these societies
were men who subsequently became Poland's great-
est poets, scientists, statesmen and patriots. The
above mentioned manifesto of Alexander'! abolished
all these societies. The most promising young men,
such as Adam Mickiewicz and Thomas Zan, were
either exiled to Siberia or interned in remote provinces
of Russia. Like Joachim Lelewel, many of the uni-
versity professors lost their positions. Prince Adam
Czartoryski was relieved of his office of Curator of
Education, and his place was taken by the rabidly
anti-Polish Novosiltsoff. The University of Wilno
declined rapidly and the Russification of the country
was begun in an intensive manner.
The "Dekabrist" revolution in Russia had its
frightful echo in Poland. During the inquest of the
St. Petersburg revolution the prose-
The Trial of cutors came across some evidence involv-
Jhe I po e iis S h f in the Polish National Patriotic Soc-
NationaiPa- ^Y- The first two months of 1826
triotic Society witnessed an orgy of arrests in Poland.
Convents, palaces, town halls and jails
were filled with prisoners, and Constantine and Novo-
siltsoff raged in their fury. All remembered Lukas-
inski's trial and trembled for the fate of the arrested.
The preliminary inquiries lasted a whole year and
the nation had become greatly depressed. Novosilt-
soff endeavored to bring the trial before a court mar-
tial, and thanks only to the great influence of Prince
Lubecki at St. Petersburg, law prevailed and the ac-
cused were granted a trial before the Senate sitting
as a court of justice. The atmosphere of Warsaw
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 421
was very heavy. There was hardly a family that did
not have one or more of its members among the ac-
cused. The trial was the object upon which the
thought of the whole nation concentrated. All per-
formances, gathering's, balls and games were sus-
pended during its duration. It was universally
realized that grave matters were at stake. On its
outcome hinged the question of whether the Poles
had a right to resent the violation on the part of
Russia of the rights guaranteed to them by the Con-
gress of Vienna. On June 10, 1828, the long awaited
moment came. The Senators announced their deci-
sion. With only the t\vo exceptions of Vincent
Krasinski and Czarnecki, they declared unanimously
that the accused were not guilty of high treason,
but merely of belonging to secret societies, which
were prohibited by law, and sentenced them accord-
ingly. The decision was received with enthusiasm
throughout Poland. It was felt that Poland's honor
had been saved. In their arguments the Senators
pointed out that the accused, acting in defence of
their rights guaranteed to Poland by the Congress of
Vienna and sworn to by the Tsars of Russia, exer-
cised their constitutional prerogatives in endeavoring
to preserve the integrity of their nation. The judg-
ment of the Court was resented by the Tsar. By an
imperial rescript publication of the opinion of the
Senate was forbidden and all the accused men were
exiled to Siberia. This opened the eyes of the most
conservative among the Poles as to how Russia
understood and respected constitutional rights.
While the older and more conservative men were
deeply mortified over the slate of affairs the younger
spirits flared up in indignation. The fire of patriotic
exaltation inflamed the minds of a group of sub-ser-
geants, who were studying military arts in a school
422 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
organized by Constantine at the summer palace of
the late King Poniatowski. A young lieutenant by the
name of Peter Wysocki, a hothead without experience
or executive ability, conceived the idea of reviving the
Patriotic Society founded by Lukasinski, and enlisted
the co-operation of the sub-sergeants. The society
was organized in December, 1828, and the young men
swore to offer their lives in defence of the liberties of
their country and to spread broadcast the gospel of
freedom.
About this time a war broke out between Russia
and Turkey. Austria secretly backed Turkey, and
as usual in such dangerous times the
foreign governments became milder in
SSH!?' their dealings with the Poles. The
at Warsaw bureaucratic oppression in Galicia was
made less severe and there was a let-up
in the Russian persecutions in Lithuania. In May,
1829, Tsar Nicholas I decided to come to Warsaw for
his coronation as King of Poland. Wysocki and his
associates planned to take advantage of the occasion
and to start a revolution. Calmer judgment pre-
vailed, however, and they agreed to postpone action
until the meeting of the Diet, which, although the
constitution provided biennial sessions, was only the
fourth since the Congress of Vienna and was bound
to break up in a deadlock with the Government. The
Diet met in May, 1830, and proved indeed to be as
recalcitrant and independent as its immediate pre-
decessors. The Deputies refused to vote money for
the erection of a statue to Alexander I as well as to
give the Church jurisdiction in matrimonial matters
and they did not mince words in criticising the
Government. The Tsar, who attended the session
was greatly displeased with their behavior and left
the city fully determined to abolish the Constitution.
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 423
He did not, however, prorogue the Diet and failed to
give the awaited signal for an uprising.
In July the news of the revolution in Paris
reached Warsaw. The Bourbon King, placed on the
throne of France at the intervention of
The Outbreak , ,
of the Uprising foreign powers, was deposed, and a
more liberal constitution adopted.
Shortly afterwards some of the Italian states rose
against Austria, and the Belgian people revolted
against the Dutch rule. These revolutions had a
stimulating effect on the minds of the redblooded
Poles. The society of the sub-sergeants carried on
feverish propaganda, but it had nobody big and
popular enough to organize and direct a successful
campaign against Russia. Perspicacious men such
as Maurice Mochnacki urged the leader of the revo-
lutionaries to make adequate preparations before
starting the conflagration. He begged Wysocki to
organize a strong revolutionary government that
should take the reins of the movement into their
hands lest it disintegrate. Wysocki refused to heed
the advice. He was convinced that all that was
needed was the starting of the revolution, and then
the nation would unanimously support it and the
regular government would take care of all the neces-
saries. He, as well as others, thought that when the
crisis came the greatest of the nation would immedi-
ately cluster around the banner of the revolution and
that General Joseph Chlopicki, the one-time hero of
the Legions, by popular acclaim, would become the
military dictator and would lead the nation to victory.
In his enthusiasm the youthful patriot overestimated
the moral strength and political wisdom of "the
known and trusted in the nation," and, regardless of
persuasions, went on true to his convictions. Novo-
siltsofT saw what was going on and hurriedly left for
424 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
St. Petersburg, as did also some Polish dignitaries
who were hated by the people. Revolutionary pam-
phlets were circulated among the people and oc-
casionally some jester would post on the door of the
Palace of Belvedere, the residence of Constantine, a
notice: "House for rent." Constantine seemed to
give little credence to the wild stories which were
being circulated about an uprising but the secret
police was diligently at work and could, at any
moment, unearth the conspiracy. It was necessary
to act promptly. To make things worse, Nicholas,
who considered himself honor-bound to crush all
revolutions no matter where they occurred, was
getting ready to send an expedition against the rest-
less spirits of France and Belgium, and ordered some
Polish regiments for that duty. This -was like pour-
ing oil on a smouldering fire. The 29th of November
was set for the beginning of the uprising. At a given
hour one detachment of conspirators was to enter the
Belvedere Palace and to assassinate Constantine. An-
other was charged with the duty of disarming the
Lithuanian guard that was attached to the Grand
Duke in his capacity as Military Commander of the
Lithuanian and Ruthenian provinces. It was a body
of men sixty-five hundred strong, well equipped and
possessing considerable ordnance. In order to dis-
arm this guard it was necessary to descend upon them
unexpectedly, and to do the work quietly and
promptly. Simultaneously, another detachment was
to rouse the population of the city and to gather the
Polish army stationed in the barracks. None of the
plans were carried through successfully. Constan-
tine crept under his wife's very voluminous skirts and
could not be found. Instead, the conspirators killed
his lieutenant and the vice-president of Warsaw, a
contemptible Polish spy who happened to be at the
CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND KINGDOM OF POLAND 425
palace. When somebody, mistaking the lieutenant
for the Grand Duke, cried out that Constantine was
dead the conspirators hastily departed. A few com-
panies of the ducal guards were, in the meantime, ap-
proaching the Belvedere in great haste. Their dis-
arming was unsuccessful, as the signals failed to
work, and not all of the Polish regiments joined the
conspirators. The populace, however, took posses-
sion of the arsenal, and carried away all the rifles and
cartridges. Several Polish generals, who refused to
join the revolutionaries, paid the penalty of death.
Flaming beacons in the streets cast their lurid gleam
afar on the eventful night of November 29, 1830,
which marks the beginning of another Polish war
against foreign oppression.
FIG. 192 THE EXILES' MARCH TO SIBERIA
CHAPTER XVIII
The War With Russia and the Aftermath
Adam Czartoryski said that the war with Rus-
sia, precipitated by the conspiracy of the young
patriots on November 29. 1830, came
Causes of the , , , , , c
Polish Failure Clther tO earl y r tO late - S me
writers think that it should have been
opened in 1828, when Russia was experiencing re-
verses in Turkey, and was least able to spare any
considerable forces for a war with Poland. Many
military critics, among them the foremost Russian
writer, General Puzyrewski, maintained that in spite
of the inequality of resources of the two countries,
Poland had all the chances of holding her own against
Russia if the campaign had been managed skillfully.
Russia sent over a hundred and eighty thousand well
trained men against Poland's seventy thousand,
twenty thousand of whom were fresh recruits who
entered the service at the opening of hostilities. "In
view of this, one would think that not only was the
result of the struggle undoubted, but its course should
have been something of a triumphant march for the
infinitely stronger party. Instead, the war lasted
eight months, with often doubtful success. At
times the balance seemed to tip decidedly to the side
WAR .WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 427
of the weaker adversary who dealt not only hard
blows, but even ventured daring offensives."* When
this war ended in the defeat of Poland it was not the
fault of the Polish soldier who does not know fear
and who is ever ready to offer his life upon the altar
of his country; it was not the fault of the country
which made all sacrifices in the name of the cause
for which the war had been declared and never tired
of giving support in both life and money; it was
rather the fault of the military leaders in whom the
people had supreme confidence, and upon whom they
bestowed dictatorial power.
It had so long been preached in Poland that
anarchy and a lack of concord were the causes of
national downfall that when war came,
Tactic^ afraid lest some discord ruin the new
opportunities, the people demanded ab-
solute power for their leaders and tolerated no
criticism. The pendulum swung to the other ex-
treme. Unfortunately the men chosen to lead be-
cause of their past achievements were either senile or
utterly incompetent to perform the great task im-
posed upon them. And what was worse, they had no
faith in the success of the undertaking. By procras-
tination they ruined all chance of the victory which
might have been theirs if the line of battle had been
summarily established in Lithuania, and if the Rus-
sian forces slowly arriving had been dealt with separ-
ately and decisively. The first clashes of a Polish
outpost with a Russian corps under Paskiewich
show what feats of bravery the enthusiastic Poles
could perform even when fighting against such tre-
mendous odds as in the battle at Stoczek. Despite a
superiority of two to one and of competent guidance
*Puzyrewski: "Woyna polsko-rosyjska" quoted by W. Studnicki
"Sprawa Polska" p. 235.
428 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the Russians suffered complete defeat. Because of
their spirit and temperament the Poles are more
adapted to offensive than to defensive warfare. The
Polish Generalissimo Chlopicki knew this well, yet
FIG. 193 GENERAL JOSEPH CHLOPICKI,
Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armies
because of his opposition to the war, criminal under
the circumstances, and his hope that by negotiations
the conflict might be averted, he tarried, allowing the
Russians to gain by the delay, to cross rivers unob-
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH
429
structed and to concentrate large forces at convenient
points in Poland proper. Dilatory tactics character-
ized the whole preliminary period of the war. Taken
by surprise at the rapid succession of events during
the night of November 29th, the Administrative
Council assembled immediately to take the reins of
government into their hands and to decide on a course
of action. The unpopular ministers were removed
FIG. 194 JULIAN URSYN NIEMCEWICZ (1757-1841)
Patriot, Writer, intimate friend and companion of Kogciuszko
from the Council and men like Prince Czartoryski,
the historian Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Joachim
Lelewel and General Chlopicki, took their places. Sub-
mitting to strong pressure brought to bear upon him,
Chlopicki, who condemned the conspirators and con-
sidered the uprising an act of madness, consented to
command the army temporarily, in the hope that it
430 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
would be unnecessary to take the field. The per-
spicacious and far-seeing Maurice Mochnacki did not
trust the newly constituted ministry, fearing that
it did not possess sufficient self-reliance and deter-
mination for spirited action, and decided to over-
throw it and substitute in its place the Patriotic Club,
organized by him. On December 3rd a great public
demonstration was held in Warsaw. Amid a storm
of enthusiasm Mochnacki furiously denounced the
FIG. 195 MAURICE MOCHNACKI
dealings that were going on between the Government
and Gonstantine who was camped outside the City
in. a suburb, protected by his guard. ''Negotiations
should be carried on not from Warsaw with Con-
stantine, but from Wilno with Nicholas," Mochnacki
shouted to the animated crowd. He advocated the
transfer of the campaign to Lithuania and the selec-
tion of as remote a field of operations as possible to
spare the country the devastation incident to war, and
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 431
to shield the native sources of food supply. The meet-
ing adopted a number of demands to be communicated
to the Administrative Council, among which the most
urgent were the establishment of a revolutionary gov-
ernment and the immediate attack upon the forces of
Constantine. Intensely dramatic was the scene when
the delegation appeared at the session of the Council
and demanded action. The ill-boding murmur of the
surging crowd outside the building gave grave weight
to their demands. When Prince Czartoryski told the
delegates that Constantine was ready to forgive the
offenders and that the whole matter was being ami-
cably settled, the passionate Mochnacki angrily in-
terrupted: "These are jests, sir. We did not rise
for the sake of receiving kindness from Constantine!
Let the Government not play comedy now. It may
end in tragedy for the revolution or for its foes !" The
city was seething. The Government realized that it
had to concede to the demands of the people, but
fearing an immediate break with Russia, permitted
Constantine to depart with his troops, dragging the
unfortunate Lukasinski with him in chains. It was
an unpardonable blunder to allow the Grand Duke to
escape instead of holding him as a valuable hostage,
to be released in exchange for some future political
gain and it was nothing short of dastardly crime to
allow the vindictive Russians to lead away with them
the unselfish and heroic patriot Lukasinski.
After Constantine's departure the Polish army,
with all but two of its generals, Vincent Krasinski
The Uprising and Kurnatowski, joined the people and
Turns into a the uprising of the young conspirators
Regular War turned into a regular war between Po-
land and Russia. The remaining four ministers of the
pre-revolutionary cabinet left the Administrative
Counc . and their places were taken by Mochnacki
432 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and three of his associates from the Patriotic Club.
The new body was known as the Provisional Govern-
ment. To legalize its actions the new government
ordered the convocation of the Diet and meanwhile
proclaimed Chlopicki as Dictator. In his day Chlo-
picki had been an able and glory bedecked soldier
who, because of the chicanery of Constantine, retired
from the army and lived in seclusion. When called
upon to lead the nation against Russia he was nearing
senility, and did not possess the executive ability and
resourcefulness required by the exigencies of the
moment. He overestimated the power of Russia and
underestimated the strength and fervor of the Polish
revolutionary army. By temperament and convic-
tion he was inveterately opposed to a war with Rus-
sia, in the success of which he did not believe, and if
he insisted upon a dictatorship and accepted it, it was
only because he intended to use his extraordinary
powers to maintain internal peace and to save the
Constitution. On assuming the great office he sent
two delegates to Emperor Nicholas and awaiting a
favorable reply, refused to mobilize the forces of the
nation and to free Lithuania from the Russian gar-
risons. The people chafed under his inactivity and
their erstwhile enthusiasm turned to restlessness and
despair, but their faith in the Dictator was still un-
shaken.
Meanwhile the deputies to the Diet began to
arrive at the capital and at their first session declared
themselves unequivocally for war with
Russia. At the same time Chlopicki's
delegates informed the Dictator that
the Emperor did not care to enter into
any negotiations, but demanded unconditional sur-
render and complete submission to his good graces.
Whereupon Chlopicki, having irretrievably wasted
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 433
valuable time, resigned. On January 25, 1831, the
Diet proclaimed the dethronization of Nicholas I and
thus lawfully broke the personal union which existed
between the Kingdom of Poland and Russia by the
terms of the Vienna Congress treaty. The bond unit-
ing the two nations was severed. The proclamation
declared that "the Polish nation is an independent
people and has a right to offer the Polish crown to him
FIG. 196 JOACHIM L.ELEWET., Teacher, Patriot and Statesman
whom it may consider worthy, from whom it might
with certainty expect faith to his oath and whole-
hearted respect to the sworn guarantees of civic free-
dom." Five men were selected to constitute the gov-
ernment. They were Prince Adam Czartoryski,
Chairman, Vincent Niemoyowski, the famous deputy
from Kalisz, who during the preceding decade had
434 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
fearlessly exposed the Russian machinations to cramp
constitutional life in Poland, Theophile Morawski,
Stanislav Barzykowski, and the celebrated educator
Professor Joachim Lelewel of the Wilno University.
The new government set itself energetically to work
at the great task imposed upon it, and soon a consider-
able army was mustered and equipped for action.
Chlopicki was persuaded to accept the active
command of the army and Prince Michael Radziwill
was made Dictator. It was too late to
TTVi*
iv* . . move the theatre of hostilities to Lithu-
Dictatorship oj 73 ,u J r T r>
Skrzynecki ania. By the end of January Russian
forces appeared in Poland commanded
by Field Marshal Deebitch. After a series of minor
battles in which Dwernicki and other generals distin-
guished themselves, the Polish forces assembled on
the right bank of the Vistula to defend the capital. On
February 25th the famous battle of Grochov took place,
noted for the dogged determination of the adversaries.
Over seven thousand Poles fell on that field. The
number of killed in the attacking army was consider-
ably larger. The increasing assaults of the doubly
strong Russian army were repeatedly repulsed and
Deebitch was forced to retire to Siedlce. Warsaw
was saved, and the Polish army remained triumphant
and confident. Chlopicki, whose soldierly qualities
reasserted themselves at the sound of battle, was
wounded in action and his place taken by John
Skrzynecki who, like his predecessor, had won dis-
tinction under Napoleon for personal courage and
had been general of the line in the Polish army. Dis-
liked by Grand Duke Constantine, he had retired
from service and had spent his advancing years in
lazy speculations over transcendental questions. He
shared with Chlopicki the conviction of the futility of
a war with Russia, but with the opening of hostilities
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH
435
436 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
took command of a corps and fought creditably at
Grochov. When the weak and indecisive Radziwill
surrendered the dictatorship, Skrzynecki was chosen
to succeed him. Unfortunately, he also lacked the
qualities of firmness and high generalship essential
to meeting a difficult situation. He endeavored to
end the war by negotiations with the Russian Field
FIG. 198 GEN. JAN SKRZYNECKI,
Successor of Gen. Chlopicki in supreme command of the Polish Army
Marshal, and, in his political artlessness, hoped for
benign foreign intervention. Sympathetic echoes of the
Polish aspirations reverberated throughout Europe,
and the astounding heroism of the Polish army won
popular admiration for the country and her endeavors
to free herself from oppression. Under Lafayette's
presidency, enthusiastic meetings had been held in
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 437
Paris. Some money for the Polish cause was also
collected in the United States and flags sent to the
Polish heroes. The chancelleries of France and Eng-
land, however, did not share in the feelings of their
people. Louis Phillippe, elevated to royal dignity
by a revolutionary tide, thought but of securing for
himself recognition on the part of all European gov-
ernments, and Lord Palmerston was in too friendly
FIG. 199 A BANNER PRESENTED TO THE POLISH INSURRECTIONISTS OF
3830-1831 BY THE YOUNG MEN OF BOSTON, MASS.
At present In the Polish Museum at Rappersvvil, St. Gallen, Switzerland
relations with Russia at the time even to listen to
Polish entreaties. Moreover, England regarded with
alarm the reawakening of the French national spirit
and had come to the conclusion that its policy
ought to be not to weaken Russia, "as Europe might
soon again require her services in the cause of order,
438
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and to prevent Poland, whom it regarded as a na-
tional ally of France, from becoming a French pro-
vince of the Vistula."* Austria and particularly
Prussia adopted a most hostile attitude and hampered
the cause of Poland by a benevolent neutrality toward
Russia. They closed the Polish frontiers and prevented
1
FIG. 200 GEN. JOSEPH DVVERNICKI
One of the ablest commanders of the campaign
the transportation of munitions of war or supplies
of any kind. Under such circumstances the war with
Russia began to take on a somber and disquieting
aspect. No amount of devotion and sacrifice could
* Morfill, 1. c., p. 260.
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 439
avert the impending catastrophe. The Poles fought
desperately and attempts were made to rouse Volhy-
nia, Podolia, Zmudz and Lithuania. With the ex-
ception of the Lithuanian uprising which took on a
serious aspect under ardent leadership, in which the
youthful Countess Emily Plater and several other
women distinguished themselves, the guerilla war-
fare carried on in the frontier provinces was of
FIG. 201 COUNTESS EMILY ZYBERK.-PLATER
One of the organizers of the uprising in Lithuania and an
active participant in several battles
minor importance, and served only to give the Rus-
sians an opportunity of wreaking their vengeance on
the peaceful population. Notorious was the slaughter
of the inhabitants of the small town of Oszmiana in
Lithuania. Meanwhile, new Russian forces under
Grand Duke Michael arrived in Poland but met with
many defeats. They were frequently out-manoeuvred
by superior Polish strategy. Constant warfare, how-
ever, and bloody battles such as that at Ostrolenka
in which eight thousand Poles lost their lives, con-
440 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
siderably depleted the Polish forces and cast de-
spondency over the country. Regrettable mistakes on
the part of the commanders, constant changes and
numerous resignations and above all the indolence
of the Generalissimo who had not ceased to count on
foreign intervention, added to the feeling of despair.
The more radical elements of the community severely
criticized the government for its inactivity, its lack
of energy and resourcefulness, and urged immediate
land reforms and the recognition of the peasants'
rights to the soil they tilled. By identification of
their interests with the national liberty, the masses
of the people could be gained for further efforts.
Such a course of action was strongly indicated and
there should have been no delay in adopting it.
There was no time for academic discussion, yet the Diet
fearing lest the reactionary governments of Europe
might regard the war with Russia as social revolu-
tion procrastinated and haggled over concessions. The
original enthusiasm of the peasantry became damp-
ened, and the incompetence and ineptitude of the gov-
ernment more apparent. The thundering denuncia-
tions of the democrats were unavailing. In the
meantime, the Russian army, commanded after the
death of Deebitch by General Paskievitch, was con-
centrating and moving in a huge semi-circle toward
Warsaw. Skrzynecki failed to prevent the juncture
of the enemy's forces. Popular clamor demanded his
deposition. The Diet acted accordingly and General
Dembinski temporarily assumed command. The at-
mosphere was highly charged. Severe rioting took
place and the government became completely disor-
ganized. Count John Krukowiecki was made the
President of the Ruling Council. He took everything
in hand with much energy and determination, but had
no faith in the success of the campaign and accepted
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 441
the highly responsible position to satisfy his personal
ambition. He believed that when the heat of the
aroused passions had subsided he could end the war
on, what seemed to him, advantageous terms.
After a desperate defence by General Sowinski,
Warsaw's suburb of Wola fell into Paskievitch's
hands on September 6th. The next day
The Close ,-, , r r ,1 . i, A J
of the War saw tne secon d ^ me * the capital s de-
fensive works attacked by the Rus-
sians. During the night of the 7th Krukowiecki capitu-
lated, although the city still held out. He was im-
mediately deposed by the Polish government and re-
placed by Bonawentura Niemoyowski. The army and
the government withdrew to the fortress of Modlin,
on the Vistula, subsequently renamed Novo-Georg-
ievsk by the Russians, and then to Plock, where the
dramatic climax of the war was reached. New plans
had been adopted when the staggering news was
received that the Polish crack corps under Ramorino,
unable to join the main army, had laid down its arms
by crossing the Austrian frontier into Galicia. It
became, evident that the war could be carried on no
longer. On October 5, 1831, the Polish army of over
20,000 men crossed the Prussian frontier, and amid
scenes of heart-rending despair and grief laid down
their arms at Brodnica in preference to submission to
Russia. Only one man, a colonel by the name of
Stryjenski, won the peculiar distinction of giving him-
self up to the grace of Russia. All the others chose
voluntary exile rather than life under Russian rule.
Following the example of Dombrowski of a genera-
tion before, General Bern endeavored to reorganize the
Polish soldiers in Prussia and Galicia into Legions
and lead them to France. The Prussian government
frustrated his plans in spite of the sympathy shown
442 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
by the people. The immigrants left Prussia in bands
of from fifty to a hundred, and their journey through
the various German lands was a "triumphal march."
The population of the principalities through which
they passed greeted them with enthusiasm. Ban-
quets and festivities were given in their honor, cities
were illumined, fiery speeches were made and great
hospitality was shown. Poetry vied with prose in
extolling Polish heroism and patriotism. Even some
of the German sovereigns, such as the King of Saxony,
the Princess of Weimar and the Duke of Gotha
shared in the general outburst of sympathy. It
was only upon the very insistent demands of Russia
that the Polish committees all over Germany had
been closed. Meanwhile, "the storm birds of the
revolution flew across central Europe and brought
with them the breath of freedom, awakening the feel-
ings w r hich were slowly taking hold of the German
people and kindling in them the striving for liberty
which seventeen years later found expression in deeds
which shook the foundations of absolutism and re-
action." *
In the meantime Russia proceeded "to restore
order" in the conquered country, for the possession
of which she never obtained legal title. Neither the
Polish Government nor the powers which signed the
treaty of Vienna gave sanction to the incorporation
of Poland into the Russian Empire. It was done by
force of arms and had no authority under the law of
nations. Until the outbreak of the present war the
country had been held by virtue of military occupancy
alone. The importance of this fact cannot be under-
estimated in considering Poland's future status.
,* Sokolowski, 1. c. Vol. IV, p. 635.
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 443
Tragic was Poland's lot when she fell prey to
Russia and ceased to have an army of her own! All
the leaders of the Patriotic Club and the
P 1 members of the Diet were condemned to
Consequences death ; all those who served in the Polish
of the War army and returned to Poland, following
the Imperial amnesty, were drafted into
the Russian army for periods of fifteen to twenty-five
years. In addition, twenty thousand men were re-
cruited from Poland. By an ukase of 1831 forty-five
thousand persons belonging to the gentry of Lithuania
and Ruthenia were forcibly settled in Russia. Tens of
thousands of fatherless Polish boys were taken from
their mothers and sent off to Russia to be raised as
Orthodox Russians in military camps or to become
settlers in remote provinces. The estates and all other
properties of those who took part in the war were
confiscated. In this way 2,349 estates were taken
from their owners in Poland and 2,890 in Lithuania
and given as compensation to Russian generals and
officials. The Universities of Warsaw and Wilno,
the Lyceum of Kremienetz in Volhynia and various
other schools, the Society of the Friends of Science and
other scientific and civic organizations were ordered
closed. The libraries and many scientific and art
collections w r ere removed to Russia. The country
was put under military law which lasted uninterrupt 1
edly until 1856 and practically since 1861, as at no
time has the Kingdom been entirely free from ex-
traordinary administrative regulations. In order "to
exterminate all traces of Polish influence" on Novem-
ber 11, 1831, Nicholas ordered the abrogation of the
existing judicial system in Lithuania and the adjoin-
ing provinces. The indemnity imposed upon Poland
amounted to twenty-two million roubles. The burden
of maintaining a Russian army of one hundred thou-
444 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
sand men was laid on the outraged, ruined and
bleeding country where there was hardly a family
which had not lost some member either by execution
or through exile. General Paskievitch was made
Duke of Warsaw and given dictatorial powers over
the conquered territory. An elaborate system of
espionage and flogging was instituted in the place of
constitutional government. The possession of arms
was punishable by death. To keep the population in
dumb obedience, citadels were built in Warsaw and
Wilno and the guns so mounted as to face the cities.
The people were threatened with the utter destruction
of their two principal cities in the event of an uprising.
A so-called "organic statute" guaranteeing certain
constitutional rights, designed to beguile public
opinion abroad, was promulgated in 1832 but never
put into operation. In spite of the fact that Pope
Gregory XVI in his bull of June 9, 1832, addressed
to the Polish clergy, condemned the war with Russia,
the -Government in its vindictiveness did not spare
the Catholic Church and adopted a number of re-
strictive measures, particularly in Lithuania and
Ruthenia. A large number of convents and churches
were closed and the children of parents belonging
to other churches were ordered to be baptized in
the Orthodox Church. The hardest blow was dealt
to the Uniate Church which, since the partition of
Poland, had been singled out by Russia for particular
repression, as it was the last existing vestige of
ancient Polish influence and bound the people of
the outlying provinces to Western civilization. The
same dissenters, for the protection of whom Peter
the Great and Catharine TI found it necessary to in-
terfere in Polish internal politics, became the sub-
jects of the most rigorous persecution. Only four
davs after the fall of Warsaw two monasteries re-
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 445
ceived notice that their estates were confiscated and
that the Uniate monks would be replaced by Ortho-
dox friars. Twenty more such institutions were
closed before the end of the year 1831. "It was with
exuberant joy that Emperor Nicholas received every
news of the closing of another Uniate monastery:
"Thanks be to God ; we have again destroyed an
enemy stronghold." * With the aid of a renegade
Uniate Bishop Siemaszko, the government resolved
to extirpate the Uniate faith and did not stop at any-
thing to achieve this aim. On February 24, 1839, the
Uniate Bishop sealed a formal act of separation from
the Church of Rome. Only the Chelm (Kholm) dio-
cese which was within the limits of the Congressional
Kingdom of Poland, because of the determined op-
position of the local clergy and population, was ex-
empted. Those who clung to their religion outside
of this single diocese were regarded as dangerous
political offenders and were dealt with accordingly.
During the first week following the dissolution of
the Uniate Church hundreds of priests and monks
were exiled to Siberia; many were denied food and
beaten to death. The women were even more re-
solved to remain true to their faith than the men and
refused apostasy. The sisters of a convent in Minsk
were punished for their obstinate devotion by out-
rageous cruelties, flogging and subjection to atrocious
insult. One of them, Baptiste Downar, was burned
to death in a bake oven by the Orthodox nuns.
Nepomucena Grotkowska had her head split with an
axe by a Russian Mother Superior. Some of the
sisters who survived the two years of inhuman suf-
ferings, were sent to an Orthodox convent in Miad-
* Bishop Edward Likowski, Historya Kosciota Unickiego, Vol. II,
p. 78.
440 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
zioly, where the superior officer tortured them in an
unspeakable manner. On cold days they were put in
sacks and in the presence of the populace of the
town, thrown into a lake and dragged by means of
ropes from shore to shore. Many drowned. After
six years of such persecution, five sisters managed to
escape and went to Rome to lay their story before the
Pope. Slowacki, one of Poland's greatest poets had
depicted their lot in one of his most renowned poems,
and more recently Stefan Zeromski described the suf-
fering of the Uniates in some of his short stories. In
spite of the persecution many Uniates remained true
to their faith and though officially belonging to the
Orthodox Church they took every occasion to mani-
fest their true attachment. During the course of the
present war, when Russian armies retired from these
districts the people gave vent to their religious emo-
tions, welcoming the Polish priests and the Polish
legions who, knowing their feelings, opened for them
their ancient churches.
The intense sufferings of the Polish, Lithuanian
and cognate peoples who had once formed the Polish
Republic, could not remain without an
The Reflection ec ho in Polish literature which, since
in ^v! te M\ Ure i the days of Poland's partitions took a
of the National / , . J i
Tragedy powerful upward swing and reached its
zenith during the period between 1830
and 1850 in the unsurpassed patriotic writings of
Mickiewicz, Slowacki and Krasinski. In "Iridion"
the latter commands his Greek hero to go north and
in the name of Christ to stop in "the land of graves
and crosses." "Thou mayst know it by the silence of
its warriors and the melancholy of its little children.
Thou mayst know it by the huts of its poor, destroyed
by fire and the palaces of its exiles, long since laid in
waste."
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 447
The writings of the three poets have had such a
tremendous influence upon the Polish mind as to
warrant at least a brief analysis in con-
nection with the political developments
of the nation since 1830. Never since
the days of ancient Greece has there been another
example of a nation receiving an exclusively poetic
education until the tragic fate of Poland after her un-
successful war with Russia. Life became stifled;
every expression of thought and action was rendered
impossible by a stupid and rigid bureaucratic regime.
And at that time among the tens of thousands of
exiles on foreign soil sprang forth the providential
and since the days of the Prophets, the unexampled,
triple blossom of poetry drawing its vital sap from
the bitter sufferings of the soul of the nation. In
intensity of feeling, depth of thought, love of country
and mastery and beauty of expression, the three poets
have no peers in the literature of the world. Had
they written in French, English or German instead of
in Polish, their names would have been known to every
schoolboy the world over as are the names of Dante,
Shakespeare and Goethe. It is profitless, perhaps use-
less to endeavor to say who of the three was the great-
est, as it is useless to try to measure the elemental
powers of nature. Each of them had the grandeur and
force which nature bestows upon human genius, and
each found a different mould for an adequate expres-
sion of his soul. Because of the greater simplicity of his
style and the directness of presentation, Mickiewicz
reached more Polish hearts than the other two and
came to be regarded as the greatest interpreter of the
people's hopes and ideals. He is the Zeus of the
Polish Olympus and the immortal incarnation of
Polish national spirit. He wrote at a time when
Romanticism prevailed in European literature. His
448 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 202 ADAM MICKIBWICZ (1799-1855)
449
writings bear the impress of that literary epoch, but
they deal with intense and palpable realities. His two
monumental works, marking the zenith of his power,
are "Dziady" (Ghosts) and "Pan Tadeusz." The
latter is universally recognized as "the only successful
epic which the XlXth century produced." George
Brandes says that "Mickiewicz alone approached
those great names in poetry which stand in history
as above all healthy, far healthier than Byron, health-
il,
ier jryn...lhan Shakespeare: Homer and Goethe."
The poetic serenity of the description of Lithuanian
life at the opening of the last century is the more re-
markable when considered in the light of the poet's
volcanic nature and his intense suffering over the
tragic fate of his native land to which he could never
return. His passionate nature finds its truest ex-
pression in "Dziady," which undoubtedly constitutes
the acme of poetic inspiration. It deals with the
transformation of the soul from individual to a higher
national conception. The hero, Gustavus, who has
suffered great misfortune, wakes up one morning in
his prison cell and finds himself an entirely changed
man. His heart, given over to individual pain and
individual love, dies. The Gustavus, bewailing his
lost personal happiness lives no more, and Konrad,
his divine ego, takes his place. All the creative
powers of his nation are concentrated in him. Here
Mickiewicz bares his own soul. He is filled with
enough moral strength to challenge even God. He
feels for millions and is pleading before God for their
happiness and spiritual perfection. It is the Prome-
thean idea, no doubt, but greatly deepened in concep-
tion and execution and applied to but one part of
humanity, the Polish nation whose intensity of suffer-
ing was the greatest in all mankind.
* Poland, London 1903, p. 279.
453 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
In 1835 Mickiewicz came under the influence
of Towianski, a mystic, and ceased to write. Toward
the end of his days he freed himself again of this
peculiar thrall which Towianski was able to exert
over him, as over the two other poets, and became
again a man of reality.
As a young man Mickiewicz took a leading part
in the literary life of the University circles at Wilno,
which were mentioned in the last chapter. When,
the societies were closed in 1823 by the order of the
Russian Government he was arrested and exiled to
Russia. While in Crimea he wrote his exquisite
sonnets. Subsequently he emigrated to France,
where most of his life was spent, and died in Con-
stantinople in 1855, while organizing a Polish legion
against Russia during the Crimean war. His spirit
was ever imbued with exalted patriotism and his
genius was active in pointing toward means of freeing
the country from foreign oppression. He was a
champion of action and it is characteristic of the
greatness of his soul that he was ever above the petty
strifes that were tearing apart the Polish emigrants,
and which absorbed their thoughts and energies. At
the time of the greatest intensity of that strife he
wrote the celebrated "Books of the Pilgrims" a work
of love, wisdom and good will written in exquisite
style. They have been called "Mickiewicz's Homilies"
and have exercised a soothing and elevating influence.
Despite the fact that Mickiewicz's themes and heroes
are connected with Polish life, his writings still touch
upon most of the problems and motives of the world
at large, thus assuring to his works everlasting value
and universal interest. The same in an equal meas-
ure is true of the other two poets. They dealt with
the most profound problems of existence, looking at
them always through the prism of their ardent pa-
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 451
triotism. Like Mickiewicz, Slowacki and Krasinski
were compelled to live outside their own country.
Slowacki's longing for his home in Volhynia and
later in Lithuania, where he spent his childhood and
T adolescence, and his love for his mother
Slowacki are tru b r pathetic. A few stanzas of
one of his poems "I am so sad, O God!"
may give an idea of the fine sentiment which per-
meated his whole existence:
"To-day o'er the wide waste of ocean sweeping,
Hundreds of miles away from shore or rock,
I saw the cranes fly on, together keeping
In one unbroken flock;
Their feet with soil from Poland's hills were shod,
And I was sad, O God!
"Often by strangers' tombs I've lingered weary,
Since, grown a stranger to my native ways,
I walk a pilgrim through a desert dreary,
Lit but by lightning's blaze.
Knowing not where shall fall the burial clod
Upon my bier, O God!
"Sometime hereafter will my bones lie whitened
Somewhere on strangers' soil, I know not where:
I envy those whose dying hours are lightened,
Fanned by their native air;
But flowers of some strange land will spring and nod
Above my grave, O God."
(Translation by Paul Soboleski in Warner's "World Literature.")
Poets are seldom born to be happy. It was not given
Slowacki to see his native land again. On April
3, 1849, at forty years of age, -he died of consumption
in Paris, and flowers of a strange land blossomed on
his grave.
Albeit all three great Polish poets were under the
Byronic spell, none other was to such a marked de-
gree as Slowacki. And yet in spite of that his mes-
sage is not that of doubts and questions, but of action
and suffering. "Although his head was in the
clouds, his feet were on the earth." Much as he
loved Poland, he w r as keenly conscious of her faults.
452
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 203 JULIUSZ SLOWAOKI (1809-1849)
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 453
Hence his bitterness on one hand and his idealism on
the other. He would wish to liberate ''the angelic
soul of Poland" from "the hideous rags,'' and "the
burning shirt of Deianira's" in which it had been
wrapped and would like to see her a great, naked,
beautiful statue struck out "of one lump of rock."
He would wish for his nation such spiritual power
as would make it immortal. And this desire for
internal perfection, seen also in Mickiewicz's "Books
of the Pilgrims,'' runs through his works like a red
thread. He would not for a moment think that there
is an abyss which could not be bridged over between
the ideal and the reality. He was convinced that the
ideal exists in the national soul but had been encum-
bered by extraneous foreign growths which should be
removed. There is hardly anything more beautiful
than Slowacki's conception of the genesis of the dis-
crepancy of the two elements. The struggle of the
two constitutes the pith of his drama "Lilla Weneda."
The plot turns around a war between two primitive
pagan peoples, the Weneds and Lechits. The first
are the forebears of "the Polish ideal, the latter the
forebears of the Polish nation. Derwid is the chief
of the Weneds and his harp is the symbol of the ideal,
a treasure of the tribe. With the fall of the Weneds,
the harp comes into the possession of the Lechits,
who had not come up to the appreciation of the treas-
ure. Yet "the harp will conquer nations." Slowacki
believes that his life mission is to champion the "harp"
idea. After he succumbed to the influence of the
Towianski philosophy, which was a modification of
the Hegelian system, he began to identify the cause
of Poland with that of Divinity and of Destination.
Poland is to lead all other nations to their spiritual
salvation. He believed in metampsychosis. By each
successive change the spirit comes nearer to the ideal.
454
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Poland is the last link on the road toward the ideal.
Her suffering has brought her soul nearer perfection
than the soul of any other nation. She is the "King-
Spirit." In 1848 in that year of "the spring of the
nations" the hopes of Slowacki rose high, and though
suffering from a fatal disease, he organized a Con-
FIG. 204 ANDREW TOWIASSKI, Philosopher and Mystic
federacy and planned to take part in an armed upris-
ing against Russia. But on April 3, 1849 he died.
Of the three poets Slowacki was the most re-
volutionary, the most radical and the most demo-
cratic. Tn this respect he formed and
extreme contrast to his warm friend
Zygmunt Krasinski who, by birth, tradi-
tion and temperament was an aristocrat and had a
Zygmunt
Krasinski
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 455
FIG. 205 ZYGMUNT KRASI&SKI (1812-1859)
456 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
horror of democracy and radicalism ; who saw in those
tendencies of the Polish nation the explanation for its
late misfortunes and the cause of its ultimate de-
struction. The social unrest of Europe at the time
raised in his mind most disquieting thoughts about
Poland and he gave expression to them in his "Un-
divine Comedy." The philosophy of action and ven-
geance found in Mickiewicz's and Slowacki's work
is foreign and repugnant to Krasinski. His "Un-
divine Comedy'' was conceived to demonstrate their
futility. It is Christian love and virtue that conquers
in the end. In this respect he was a precursor of
Tolstoy. It required a great deal of boldness to teach
such a philosophy of inaction and resignation to the
Poles, who were chafing under oppression and were
gnawed by despair, and to combat the democratic
currents which were permeating the hearts of the
people who believed that by the adoption of these
principles alone, could governmental tyranny be al-
layed. The seeds of his unpopular philosophy did
not, however, fall on utterly barren ground. There
was too much despair in the national soul for the
glory of quiet martyrdom not to find any sympathetic
echo.
Brandes asserts that in few literatures has Ro-
manticism attained to an expression of such beauty
as in the Polish. The reason for it can be easily ex-
plained. The essence of Romanticism is to be found
in the dissatisfaction of the human spirit with exist-
ing reality. In normal communities the dissatisfac-
tion and the resultant sufferings and longings lie
usually in individual planes. In the tragic conditions
of Poland it was elevated to a social conception, hence
the greater breadth and intensity of Polish Roman-
ticism. By heroic efforts the nation endeavored to
turn away the trend of hostile reality. The efforts
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 457
FIG. 206 FREDERICK CHOPIN (1810-1849)
458 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
resulted only in greater misfortunes. Despair and
pessimism began to affect the national spirit. To
combat this evil force of bitter reality it was necessary
to create an equally strong spiritual force. Hence
the conception of Poland as a Christ of the nations
evolved with such strength and beauty by the three
poets, and with particular emphasis by Krasinski.
By their powerful flights of fancy, by the intensity of
their feeling, by the grandeur of their genius and the
beauty of their expression, the three poets have im-
mortalized Poland, her literature, her sufferings and
her ideals. They have left an indelible imprint upon
the spiritual evolution of their nation. The same
spirit and longings of the Polish soul have been incul-
cated in the soul of every civilized human being the
world over by the musical productions of another
Polish genius, Frederick Chopin, who was born in
Warsaw and who died in Paris in the same year as
Slowacki. His sensitive soul was imbued with the
same sufferings that permeated the hearts of the three
great poets and the Polish people.
The tens of thousands of Polish emigrants who
fled from Russian vengeance arrived in France.
While the population met them with
Emi rants enthusiasm as champions of liberty,
Louis Philippe and the then Premier,
Casimir Perier, for the same reason received them
with great reserve, and to keep them away from Paris
designated the cities of Avignon and Chateaurouxfor
their temporary settlements. Perier refused to grant
an audience to Bonawentura Niemoyowski, the Presi-
dent of the last 'Polish Government, for fear that such
a hearing might be construed as an act of diplomatic
demonstration. It was an attitude which the emi-
grants had not anticipated but which remained un-
altered after the monarchy was succeeded by the
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH
459
Second Republic. Even Lamartine, the poet and
historian, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, told the
Poles that "the dead cannot be resuscitated." But
the Poles never can or will believe that their nation is
dead. Each generation since the last dismember-
FIG. 207 BONAWENTURA NIEMOYOWSKI, PRESIDENT OF THE
LAST POLISH GOVERNMENT
ment has proved by the seas of blood shed for the
cause of independence that the Polish nation is alive
and virile, and that there can be no permanent peace in
Central Europe until the Polish nation is again made
free to organize its own State. The efforts of the
460 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
emigrants of the period under consideration are but
another chapter of the epopee of toil and privation, de-
votion and martyrdom for a sacred cause. Immedi-
ately upon their arrival in France the emigrants or-
ganized themselves in political societies to further
their aims. It should be remembered that the flower
of Polish thought and achievement was represented
among those who came to France. All the generals,
officers, statesmen, scientists and writers assembled
there, among them Prince Czartoryski, Joachim Lele-
wel, Maurice" Mochnacki, General Bern, Mickiewicz,
Slowacki, Krasinski and the galaxy of other poets
and writers. Those who still believed that through
diplomatic intervention a good deal could be accom-
plished clustered around the illustrious Prince Adam
Czartoryski, who had many influential connections
in the chancelleries of Europe, and who maintained a
large political bureau in his palace, "Hotel Lambert,"
in Paris, through which he kept in touch with most
of the capitals of Europe. Others formed the Demo-
cratic Society and associated their hopes with the
democratic currents of the time. They criticized Czar-
toryski's faction, holding justly that diplomacy with-
out a strong army behind it is bound to be ineffect-
ive. The failure of the 'Polish representatives in
London may serve as an illustration of the truth
of this assertion. Both Grey and Brougham, mem-
bers of Palmerston's cabinet, were close personal
friends of Czartoryski, and both were very friendly
to the Poles. In the name of England, Grey had
presented a sword of honor to Kosciuszko, assuring
him of England's friendship for Poland. Brougham
had written splendid dissertations concerning Po-
land's political rights. And yet, as cabinet officers,
they dared do nothing for the outraged and dispos-
sessed nation. The Russian Ambassador, Count
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 461
Lieven and his wife, the sister of General Beckendorff,
who was the closest friend of Tsar Nicholas I and the
organizer of the Russian secret service, were able to
exercise such pressure upon Lord Brougham that he
refused to grant a hearing to the venerable Polish his-
torian Niemcewicz, Kosciuszko's friend and compan-
ion. In 1831, after Grey entertained Czartoryski at
a private dinner he received a most acrimonious and
resentful letter from Lady Lieven. Similarly disap-
pointing were the hopes of the Democratic Society,
as the expected social revolutions were slow to come,
and when they finally did come, brought naught to
Poland.
Tsar Nicholas I, in vindictiveness not a whit in-
ferior to Ivan the Terrible, his celebrated predecessor
The Further on tne Russian throne, resolved to
Consequences blot out the Polish nation forever. His
of the Polish inhuman tyranny, carried out with
War with heartless rigor by Paskiewicz and his
associates, has cast an indescribable
horror over "constitutional" Poland. It should be
borne in mind that the constitution has never been,
and legally could not be rescinded. The slightest sus-
picion was sufficient to subject the unfortunate vic-
tims to cruel flogging, tortures, jailing and exile.
Executions were a daily occurence; life was utterly
stifled; schooling was practically discontinued; and
shameless provocation was practiced incessantly.
When the secret service agents "discovered" a plot
which never existed among the boys of one of the
upper grades in a Warsaw high school, the Tsar
ordered that the three upper grades in the high
schools all over Poland be closed. Those who knew
the attitude of this despot toward education will not
be surprised at this deed of his. The following quo-
tation from Prof. Vladimir G. Simkhovitch of Colum-
462 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
bia University, may give an idea of the mentality of
the Tsar, which will help the reader to grasp what his
rule in a conquered nation must have been:
"Nicholas I was a narrow-minded man, but with strong con-
victions, and with a temper that brooked no contradiction. He
made it his paramount task to educate his people for an autocratic
regime. He therefore resolved to do away with all elements and
conditions leading to independent thought or to a desire for free-
dom .... The students in the universities were ordered to
wear a special military uniform, and regulations were issued pre-
scribing how they should appear in public, how they should cut
their hair. The university course also felt the heavy hand of
Emperor Nicholas. Thus, for instance, all courses in European
public law were abolished, because 'rebellions in foreign lands have
disfigured this science and shattered its very foundations.' Com-
parative constitutional law was discontinued because of 'the weak-
ness of its principles_and its unsatisfactory results.' Courses in
social statistics and logic were abolished. Philosophy and psy-
chology could be taught only by Greek orthodox professors of
theology, and then with the explicit order to teach according to the
truth of revealed religion. The professors were instructed to
submit to the government the lectures they intended to give, and
also the lists of books recommended for collateral reading. The
deans were to see to it that professors' lectures are identical with
those that were approved, and they were to report the slightest
deviations, 'even the most harmless ones.' The tuition fees of the
students were furthermore greatly increased, so as to keep out
poor people, 'whom education may make dissatisfied with their lot,
or with that of their friends.'
"Of the gymnasiums, the classical fell into disgrace. The
classical writers talked too much about civic matters, and referred
to republics. By the end of the reign of Nicholas I, only eight
classical gymnasiums were left in existence.
"Primary education under Nicholas existed only on paper.
The Pedagogical Institute was closed, 'being unnecessary,' and
unnecessary it really was in Nicholas's reign. Denominational
parochial schools were tolerated, and in 1839 there were 2,000 such
schools, with 19,000 pupils. But there is no way of telling whether
they really existed. Many things existed in Russia on paper
only.' " *
* "History of the School in Russia," Educational Review, 1907,
;. 506-7.
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 463
Some of the emigrants nourished such an im-
patient desire to do something for the country, as to
undertake the rashest kinds of expedi-
tions designed to stir up local rebellions
and disturbances. Such was the at-
tempt of Colonel Zaliwski, early in 1833. With a
small band of ill-provisioned, penniless companions,
with no passports, he reached Poland, having braved
unlimited perils. Overawed by oppression, the popu-
lation failed to respond to his urgings. Here and there
he found a few followers, but pursued by Russian
troops he sought refuge in Galicia, where he was ar-
rested by the Austrian police. A similar attempt by
Zawisza ended in the loss of life of many of the noble
souls blinded by patriotism and goaded on by despair.
Another result of the numerous unfortunate expedi-
tions and small uprisings was a closer understanding
between the three powers. In Munchengraetz, in
Bohemia, the Tsar met Emperor Francis I and the
Prussian King Frederick Wilhelm III in September,
1833, to ratify the "Holy Alliance" and strengthened
the ties that bound them together because of Poland.
At this meeting also the lot of the free Cracow re-
public was doomed. It was agreed to discontinue its
existence and to incorporate it in Galicia at the first
opportunity. Meanwhile the representatives of the
three powers began to exert growing pressure and
became the de facto government of the Republic. All
these repressive measures, however, were unsuccessful
in suppressing national unrest. As somebody well ex-
pressed it, the war was going on, merely the form had
changed. The repressions were met by constant up-
risings, organized by local secret societies in conjunc-
tion with or independently of the Polish political
organizations abroad. After the flower of the nation's
manhood had been mowed down, all the strong and en-
4G4 THE POLITICAL HISTOkY OF POLAND
terprising spirits who were left at home took part in
the preparations for another open outbreak of hos-
tilities. The secret police in all parts of Poland had
their hands full trying to uncover the conspiracies.
Political suits were incessant; hundreds of men were
thrown into dungeons; many, like the noble Simon
Konarski and Father Sciegenny, were executed;
others were exiled for life to Siberia; and others
were tortured inhumanly. In Galicia, Smolka and
Dunayewski were sentenced to death in 1845, but
their sentences were commuted to long imprisonment.
The tide of the revolution in 1848 released them, and
subsequently Smolka became the President of the
Austrian Parliament and one of the greatest states-
men of the century and Dunayewski was Bishop of
Cracow and Cardinal.
The manifold local uprisings occurring in all
sections of Poland and the existence of secret organi-
zations gave to the Polish "Democratic
The End of Society" in France the erroneous im-
pression that the time was ripe for
thcfsiaughter starting a general revolution throughout
of the Gaiic- Poland. The leading spirit in this en-
ian Gentry tcrprisc was Ludwik Mieroslawski, who
prepared a sweeping plan of campaign
without giving much consideration to the feasibility
of carrying it out even in part. The men of cooler
judgment urged that he desist from undertaking rash
steps, but without avail. He was, however, pre-
vented from progressing very far with the prelimin-
ary arrangements by the vigilance of the Prussian
police. He and a few of his fellow workers were in-
tercepted in Posen in February, 1846, and a number
of his sympathizers in Lemberg were arrested on a
charge of complicity in the conspiracy. This ill-
timed launching of a movement would have been
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH 465
harmless had not the three partitioning powers made
use of it to put an end to the free Republic of Cracow.
Immediately following Mieroslawski's arrest in Posen,
Austria, by consent of the Russian and Prussian .Gov-
ernments, sent a large army to occupy Cracow. A
series of encounters followed throughout Galicia, dur-
ing which occurred one of the most brutal slaughters of
the gentry by the peasant rabble that Poland had ever
known. To eradicate the existing political ferment
the Austrian Government decided to make use of the
artifically fostered enmity which the peasants enter-
tained against their landlords because the latter were,
by law, compelled to collect taxes and select recruits
for the Austrian army. Officials of the Austrian
Government spread news among the peasants that
the revolutionary movement of the gentry was aimed
at the subjugation of the peasants into still greater
economic dependence, and that the magnanimous
Austrian Government was sending troops to defend
them against the oppressors. The ignorant and ex-
citable mobs broke loose under these instigations
and the protection of the military and civil authori-
ties, and the carnage and havoc wrought by them
were atrocious. Particularly distinguished for cruelty
was a highwayman by the name of Jacob Szela, who
was subsequently awarded an estate in Bukovina by
the Austrian Government. This dastardly crime of
Austria was but the crowning of the policy of nourish-
ing social discontent in Galicia. On several occa-
sions the representatives of the gentry in Galicia had
petitioned the government to set their serfs free, and
in every instance the government had refused to grant
permission. When, in 1848, at the first news of the
conflagration that had set Europe on fire, the Galician
landowners again resolved to abolish serfdom, the
466 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Austrian Government again interfered, but soon
afterward, in the middle of April of the same year, it
proclaimed the emancipation of the peasants as an act
of grace of the Emperor. The parcels of land which
the peasants had been renting were donated to them
by the government. Reimbursements were promised
to the owners. The sudden change in land ownership
caused by the arbitrary act of a despotic government
and the grave economic problems it created and left
unsolved, precipitated a severe crisis in Galicia, which,
closely following the illegal dissolution of the Cracow
Republic whose semi-independent status was guaran-
teed by the Treaty of Vienna, created a strong feeling
of resentment.
The progress of events of that celebrated year of
1848 gave rise to new hopes. Italy, France, Germany
and Austria had been shaken by revolu-
184 g tions. Everywhere the people requested
armed intervention on behalf of Poland
in addition to their particular demands. The Poles
did not remain passive onlookers in this mighty awak-
ening of Europe to the stirring up of which they had
contributed in no mean measure. The emigrants
left France for Poland, and on their way through the
German states and Bohemia were hailed enthusiasti-
cally. In Berlin the population demanded the im-
mediate release of Mieroslawski and his colleagues,
which King Frederich Wilhelm IV not only granted
without delay, but greeted the released prisoners
standing with bared head. He also permitted the
formation in the Duchy of Posen of a Polish army,
which was to fight beside the united German nation
against tyrannical Russia. The army soon numbered
ten thousand men and Mieroslawski became its com-
mander. The poet Mickiewicz went to present the
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH
46?
Polish question to the newly elected Pope Pius IX
and formed a Polish Legion in Italy. At the same
FIG. 208 LUDWIK MIEROSI,AWSKI
time Galicia urged a war with Russia upon the Con-
stitutional Austrian monarch.
46$ THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Soon, however, the revolutionary wave subsided
and with its ebb came a dampening of enthusiasm for
the cause of Poland. The reaction be-
The Reaction , n *> A
came apparent in Prussia first. Against
the Poles, a German committee was formed in Posen,
which demanded the division of the Duchy into two
parts, one German and the other Polish. The con-
sent of the King to the formation of a Polish army
was rescinded, particularly in view of the threatening
attitude assumed by the Russian ambassador and the
massing of strong Russian forces at the frontier. The
warning issued by Tsar Nicholas in his memorable
manifesto in which he said: "Nations be submissive,
for God is with us!" had, no doubt, its desired effect.
As the Poles did not want to disband, severe en-
counters followed between them and the Prussian
troops. Finally submission became inevitable, and
being unable to reach their own country, they scat-
tered to help the revolutions in Italy, Baden and
Hungary.
In Galicia, the Ruthenian clergy aroused a feeling
of animosity among their peasants toward the Poles,
and in this they were strongly encouraged by the Aus-
trian Government which was under stipulated obliga-
tions to the Tsar for the effective aid he had rendered
by sending a great army to suppress the Hungarian
revolutionaries so ably led by the Polish Generals
Dembinski, Wysocki and Bern. The latter was mili-
tary commander of the Viennese burghers early in
1848, when they defended their city against the
Austrian Imperial troops; later he joined the Hun-
garians and won a famous victory in Transylvania,
and after the collapse of the Hungarian revolution
went to Turkey and embraced Islamism, as several
other Poles had done, to be able to serve in the Sul-
tan's army against Russia. The failure of the Hun-
WAR WITH RUSSIA AND THE AFTERMATH
469
garian uprising was a great blow to the cause of
Poland. Its success would probably have resulted
in the emancipation of Galicia. As it was, the year
1848 ended in a triumph of reaction and the retention
of the painful status quo as far as Poland was con-
cerned, with the single exception that the Poles re-
FIG. 209 GENERAL JOSEPH BEM
ceived representation in the newly established con-
stitutional regime in both Austria and Prussia, and
through their representatives they could denounce
openly all the iniquities to which they had been sub-
jected and voice the sentiments of the nation for free-
dom and independence.
470 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The disappointment with the results of the revo-
lutionary era of 1848 was disheartening. In Con-
gressional Poland dead silence and com-
The illegal plete apathy followed, lasting until the
Annexation cf opening of the Crimean War. Interest
the Congres- ^ n ecO nomic and intellectual pursuits
sional King- , ~ . j T
dom to the ceased. During this quiet period Rus-
Russian sia proceeded in her wanton ways. The
Empire Russian language was introduced in all
governmental offices, which had been
systematically filled with Russian officials. The
Russian system of weights and measures and of
passports was transplanted; the post office and the
control of highways was taken over by the Rus-
sian Government, and the tariff frontier separating
the Kingdom from the Empire was removed. During
the decade from 1846 to 1855 the population of Poland
decreased about one million, and when the Crimean
war broke out new hopes seemed vain because the
exhaustion of the country was too great to make
possible any serious uprising against Russia in spite
of the reverses she was experiencing at the hands of
the Allies: Turkey, France and England. Ukraine
alone rose, led by Polish conspirators, and in Turkey
Polish Legions were formed with the help of France
and England. In the spring of 1855 and again in
September of the same year Napoleon III instructed
his Ambassador at London to take up with the Eng-
lish Government the settlement of the Polish ques-
tion. The matter did not, however, come up for con-
consideration at the Paris peace conference in 1856.
And once more were the Poles made to realize the
painful truth that their hopes in diplomacy were but
an illusion, a pernicious fata morgana.
FIG. 210 THE BANK OF POLAND, FOUNDED IN 1S25 IN WARSAW
CHAPTER XIX
The Uprising of 1863 and the Era of Positivism
In 1855 Nicholas I died. He was succeeded by
his son Alexander II, who had been heralded as a
The man of liberal proclivities, of broad mind
Shattering of and of warm sympathies for the Poles.
Polish Hopes Upon his arrival at Warsaw in May,
by Tsar 1856, he was received with great hopes
and expectations. The impatiently
awaited political credo of the new Tsar brought grave
disappointment. He expressed himself in full sym-
pathy with the policy of his father, proposed to con-
tinue it and warned the Poles against any dreams.
"Point de reveries, messieurs," he said, and left the
indolent Prince Gorchakoff and the bitterly hated
MukhanofF to continue the administration of the con-
quered country in their habitual fashion. When the
suggestion was made on the part of the Poles that a
law school be opened at Warsaw, Gorchakoff opposed
it, and in his report of August 25, 1857, he argued
that "the founding of such a school at Warsaw would
act as a new obstacle toward the fraternization of the
Polish youth with the other parts of the Empire and
toward the instilling in them of feelings of loyalty
to the sovereign." The Tsar was of the same opinion.
472 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The actual results of this policy were, however, quite
contrary to the anticipations of official Russia, as the
Poles, studying in Russian universities, came into
sympathetic contact with the young Russian revolu-
tionaries, and when they returned home they hardly
entertained any strong attachments for the govern-
ment.
Viceroy Gorchakoff advised against the re-estab-
lishment of representative government in Poland.
"There will be time to do this," he said, "when the
whole Empire is ready to benefit in an equal measure
from liberal local government, after the institutions
of credit, mortgages and other public improvements,
as exist in Poland, will be known in the other parts
of Russia." Owing, however, to the depression in
the Russian governmental circles which followed the
Crimean war, the rigor of administrative oppression
was somewhat abated. The publication of some of
Mickiewicz's works was allowed, permission was
granted for the establishment of a College of Phy-
sicians and Surgeons, and for the founding of an
Agricultural Society. Youth flocked to the college,
drawn there not altogether by the love of medical
studies, but because it afforded an opportunity for
university life and association. Likewise the Agri-
cultural Society gathered around it men of all pur-
suits. In addition to landowners and country squires,
the Society had in its membership merchants and
manufacturers, scientists and poets, all craving some
sort of organized activity. Count Andrew Zamoyski,
an able and influential man of fine character and
constructive mind, became the heart and soul of the
Society which exercised a strong influence upon pub-
lic opinion, and which devoted as much consideration
as the meddlesome Russian authorities allowed to
the burning social and economic problems of the time,
473
chief among which was the agrarian question. It
also served as the only organized body of opinion
to present the needs of the country to the govern-
ment. Some of their memorials, however, though
containing very moderate demands, were resented
in St. Petersburg. Because of their conservativism,
the members of the Society and their political sym-
pathizers were known as the Whites, in contradis-
FIG. 211 COUNT ANDREW ZAMOYSKI
tinction to the younger men, known as the Reds,
who were chafing under the bureaucratic oppression,
and who bound themselves in secret societies to
give vent to their feelings and to prepare for another
attempt to overthrow the detested Russian rule.
The Reds scorned the compromises indulged in by the
Whites and regarded all Russian concessions as
harmful, because they served only to delude the nation
474 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
and to retard an armed uprising. The Whites were
opportunists and hoped by rational endeavor to
strengthen the nation economically as well as in every
other direction before any new war should be at-
tempted. Widely separated as they were in their
views and methods, the two parties still stood firmly
united in their intense hatred of the government. In-
finitesimal was the faction which advised loyalty to
Russia in the hope of regaining the guaranteed
autonomy and of establishing an economic union with
the Russian Empire. Chief among those Polish sym-
pathizers with Russia was Margrave Alexander Wiel-
opolski, a man of education and strong will, but of an
impulsive, arbitrary, pugnacious and obstinate char-
acter. When, in 1861, the Russian Government real-
ized that it must make certain concessions to the
Poles, its attention was called to Wielopolski, whose
pro-Russian political philosophy found an early ex-
pression in a pamphlet written by him after the
Galician slaughter in 1846, entitled "Lettre d'un
gentilhomme polonais an prince de Metternich." In
that pamphlet he pointed out the futility of expecting
any effective help from the West European countries
and advised a political and economic union with the
Russian nation. This political philosophy, as well as
the character and egotism of Wielopolski, made him
a most unpopular man in Poland, and yet he was
selected by the government to pacify the country and
to effect a reconciliation with the Russian rule. The
choice was unfortunate and the results disastrous.
The echoes that reached Poland from the Apen-
nine Peninsula, where the Italians under Garibaldi,
with the help of Napoleon III, were re-
Po itica em- g amm pr their independence, and the
onstrations b .. ,.'..
hopes of an early revolution in Russia,
stimulated the activities of the Reds in Poland. To
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 475
stir up the patriotic emotions and yet to do it within
the boundaries permitted by law, the Reds utilized
every conceivable occasion. They organized mani-
festations that aroused the masses and kept Europe
apprised of renewed activity in the Polish volcano.
Plolidays, religious processions, funerals and historic
anniversaries were grasped as opportunities to sing
FIG. 212 MARGRAVE ALEXANDER WIELOPOLSKI
patriotic songs, to pray for the redemption of the
country, to display national emblems and to stir up
feeling in one way or another. The first of these dem-
onstrations was held in June of 1860. The occasion
for it was the funeral of Madame Sowinska, the wife
of the defender of a suburb. of Warsaw against Pas-
kievitch in the war of 1832. Tens of thousands of per-
476 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
sons took part in the funeral cortege. A few days
later another immense gathering took place, and then
again another. There was no end to demonstrations
of the kind. The authorities were unable to stop
this form of patriotic activity, particularly as the de-
monstrations were so solemn and orderly as to afford
the Russian government no opportunity for inter-
ference. The government could not prevent the
people from wearing nothing but mourning clothes
and of refraining from gaiety of any kind. When
the Russian, Austrian and Prussian monarchs came
to meet at AVarsaw in October, 1860, the triumphal
arches built in the streets for their reception were
burned and Francis Joseph was met at the railroad
station with cries of: "Long live Solferino and
Magenta!" The monarchs met with a similar un-
pleasantness when the air of the theatre was sur-
charged with obnoxious gases during the gala per-
formance given in their honor.
In attempting to stimulate the Agricultural
Society to a more radical policy with reference to
agrarian reforms than the Society was willing to
adopt, the Reds called a huge street demonstration
on the day scheduled for the opening of the annual
convention of the Society. Immense crowds gathered
in the streets of Warsaw on February 25, 1861,
and with torches, crosses and historic banners pro-
ceeded toward the building where the convention
was assembled. They were dispersed by the police
and the soldiery. Two days later the demonstration
was repeated on a still larger scale. A Russian
general, unauthorized by his superiors, ordered a
charge against the unarmed crowd. Five men were
killed and a large number wounded. This slaughter
of innocent men roused the country. Contributions
poured in daily for the erection of a lasting monu-
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
477
ment in memory of the victims and for the support
of their families. GorchakofT realized that some con-
cessions must be made by the government lest a fierce
revolution break out immediately. He allowed the
holding of demonstrative obsequies in honor of the
dead, in which the whole city took part and turned
over the policing and adminstration of the city to a
FIG. 213 DEMONSTRATION AT THE FUNERAL OF THE FIVE VICTIMS
KILLED IN THE STREETS OF WARSAW BY THE RUSSIAN
SOLDIERY ON FEBRUARY 27, 1861. THE CLERGY OF
ALL CREEDS ATTENDED THE OBSEQUIES
citizens' committee which had done splendid work
during the fort)'' days it had been in existence. Mean-
while, the hated Mukhanoff was relieved from duty
by the Viceroy, and on March 25th, a month after
the last demonstration, the Tsar proclaimed an ukase
by which he called into life a Council of State, com-
478 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
posed of citizens, lay and ecclesiastical, upon whom
devolved the duty "to discuss the needs of the coun-
try, to receive petitions and to hear complaints." The
ukase also created elective administrative councils in
the provinces, counties and municipalities of the
kingdom; it restored the Commission for Public Edu-
cation and Religious Creeds; it allowed the reopening
of the higher institutions of learning; and it provided
for the reorganization of public instruction. Mar-
grave Alexander Wielopolski was chosen to direct the
FIG. 234 SOUVENIR MEDAL, IN MEMORY OF THE DEAD AND WOUNDED
IN THE STREETS OF WARSAW
work of the Commission or Ministry of Education and
Creeds. He was also soon made head of the De-
partment of Justice and became the most powerful
man in Poland. He brought to his office great abili-
ties and good intentions, but his temper and im-
patience prevented him from achieving the things
he most desired : general approval of his endeavors
and the conciliation of the nation. Popular opinion
remained inimical to him, and Andrew Zamoyski, the
leader of the nobility, could not persuade himself to
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 479
support the autocratic and violent Margrave, although
he did not oppose him. To curb his opponents and
the malcontents, Wielopolski did not hesitate to use
the most drastic measures, and thereby antagonized
the clergy and outraged the country. The closing
of the Agricultural Society ordered by him, provoked
a demonstrative outburst of indignation, and public
feeling was only the more embittered by the hun-
dreds of victims who fell in the bloody street riots
which took place in Warsaw on April 8, 1861.
Such was the inauspicious beginning of Wielo-
polski's administration! It was necessary for him to
resort to the use of military patrols to
preserve order in the capital and to in-
voke rigid censorship to forestall severe
criticism. This condition of things did not, however,
diminish his energy in carrying out his program of
reforms. He began by discharging from government
positions all Russians and supplanted them by Poles,
reorganized the courts, and removed all the disabili-
ties the Russian Government had imposed upon the
Jews. They were given full rights of citizenship and
representation in the Council of State, and in the
administrative provincial and local councils. To
stimulate the polonization of the Jewish element he
encouraged their education in the Polish schools, and
forbade the use of the Jewish jargon in legal and
commercial transactions. Public education was one
of his chief concerns. He labored to restore Polish
schools to their former European standards, and in
the curricula worked out he laid particular emphasis
upon French attainments and culture. He built a
large number of new primary and secondary schools,
and in 1862, during his second term of office, the War-
saw Universary was reopened under the name of the
Superior School, with four departments, an elective
480
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
rector and a large body of able professors and in-
, structors.
Liberal in educational and religious matters, he
extremely conservative in his agrarian policy,
e had no sympathy with the popular demand for
radical solution of the land problem. Instead, he
idvocated a modification of the existing conditions by
'the substitution of rent payments for personal services,
FIG. 215 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW
and was unalterably opposed to all state legislation
aimed at any compulsion to sell land to peasants in
accordance with a stipulated schedule of prices. It was
rather unfortunate that he encountered such relent-
less open and tacit opposition to everything he did or
proposed. It served to enrage him the more and to
resort to most brutal means to conquer the opposition
which, in turn, grew more determined from day to
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 481 \
I
day. His position became untenable, particularly
after the death of Prince Gorchakoff, his staunch/
supporter. The Reds were ceaseless in denouncing the
Margrave and in organizing demonstrations wher|-
ever and wherever possible. The Whites, despite the
closing of the Agricultural Society, continued to keep
together in secret societies and to group around theu\
leader. Count Zamoyski. They looked with favor\
upon the reforms, but were prevented from lending \
active support by the repulsive character of Wielopol- \
ski, and because of his failure to apply the program 1
to Lithuania and Ruthenia.
Both Lithuania and Ruthenia became restless. I
On August 21, 1861, Kovno celebrated the anniver- /
sary of the Union of Lublin, which was/
T - he , Rl ^ ing . consummated in 1569, during the reierf
Of the Revolu- , ~ TTA i i i r '
tionary Tide * Zygmunt i August, and which fofr
centuries had united the Lithuanians
and Ruthenians with the Poles as brethren and frefe
men. A still greater demonstration was held afc
Horodlo on October 10th of the same year, in which
a countless multitude of Lithuanians, Poles and Ru-,
thenians celebrated the memorable deed of 1413,
which was conceived in love and dedicated to liberty.
In the same historic town they once more swore to up-
hold the union. To stem the revolutionary tide, the
new Viceroy, Count Charles Lambert, goaded on by
Wielopolski, determined to employ severe measures
of repression. In spite of this, the funeral of the
patriotic Archbishop of Warsaw, which took place
on the day of the Horodlo anniversary, was seized as
an excuse for a demonstrative gathering at the capital.
The Reds issued a proclamation for a similar demon-
stration to be held five days later on the anniversary
of Kosciuszko's death, October 15th. The govern-
ment was apprised of this and declared martial law
482 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
throughout the kingdom. This step served but to
provoke bloodshed and did not stop the demonstra-
tion. On the morning of that day all the churches
of the city were thronged to capacity, masses cele-
brated and religious and patriotic songs chanted.
The Governor General surrounded the churches with
troops and ordered wholesale arrests of all communi-
cants. In two churches the congregations resolved
to remain throughout the day and night. The next
morning the troops forcibly entered the churches and
arrested over three thousand persons. In remon-
strance against this outrage the administrator of the
archdiocese ordered the closing of all churches for an
indefinite period of time. In proof of their solidarity
all the Protestant temples and Jewish synagogues
similarly closed their doors. Following this incident
Count Lambert left Poland and Wielopolski sub-
mitted his resignation and went to St. Petersburg.
In the conferences with the Tsar he attributed the
causes of his failures to the insufficiency of the con-
cessions granted, and urged among other reforms the
separation of the administrative and military branches
of the government, as was provided in the constitu-
tion of 1815. The Tsar was not ready to follow his
advice at the time. Meanwhile, the successors of
Count Lambert ruled the country with an iron hand.
Arrests were made without discrimination, and thou-
sands of persons were deported to Russia and
Siberia, chiefly from among the Whites. The Reds,
through the secrecy of their proceedings and their
splendid organizations which were spread all over the
country, were more protected than the conservatives,
who were usually taken unawares, often on the slight-
est suspicion, in the majority of instances imaginary
and groundless. As the repressions grew, resistance
became more active and better organized. The emi-
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 483
grants in France and Italy renewed their efforts in
various directions. With the assistance of Garibaldi
and under the direction of General Mieroslawski a
military school was established at Genoa in September,
1861, to train officers and subalterns. At the request
of the Russian Government, however, the school was
closed by order of the Italian authorities in June, 1862.
These renewed revolutionary activities led the Tsar
FIG. 216 THE MAIN BUILDING OF THE NEW POLYTECHNICAL, INSTITUTE
AT WARSAW
to consider more seriously the advice of Wielopolski.
He entrusted to him first the selection of a new arch-
bishop who would open the churches and prohibit
future patriotic demonstrations in these edifices, and
then, in spite of the vehement protests of the Russian
reactionaries, consented to grant to Poland a much
wider measure of home rule than heretofore, and to
separate the military from the civil authorities. Fol-
lowing the example of his grandfather, the Tsar sent
484
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
his brother Constantine to Warsaw as Viceroy of
Poland, and made Wielopolski the head of the civil
government, June 8, 1862. The home rule granted
was very considerable. It did not, however, restore
the autonomy of 1815, and did not revive the national
Polish army.
FiG. 217 JOSEPH KORZENIOWSKI (1797-1863)
Educator and Writer
It was during this period of the shortlived Polish
autonomy that Wielopolski carried out his educa-
tional reforms. In addition to the re-
PoHsh^^ opening of the University of Warsaw,
Home-Rule mentioned above, he founded aPolytech-
nical School and an Institute of Agricul-
ture and Forestry at Pulawy, near Lublin. He re-
UPRISING OF 1863 -AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 485
organized the Warsaw School of Fine Arts and
opened a High School for girls at the capital. In-
struction in all the schools was exclusively in Po-
lish and emphasis was laid on the teaching of Polish
history and literature. The name of the Polish
writer, Joseph Korzeniowski, should be mentioned in
this connection, as he was Wielopolski's chief adviser
in educational matters, and as his name has since
become known to the Anglo-Saxon world by the
literary genius of his nephew, Joseph Conrad.
Had home rule been granted earlier, before the
revolutionary propaganda took such a strong hold on
the people, Polish political life might have taken a
different course, for a while at least. As it was, the
Reds, believing that the concessions made on the part
of the government were calculated merely to pacify
the strong revolutionary spirit which was animating
the country, and that they would be rescinded or cur-
tailed after this object had been attained and the
revolutionary societies disbanded, resolved to continue
on the warpath and to stop at nothing short of com-
plete independence. Their determination, however,
might have been paralyzed by the cooler councils of
the conservatives had somebody other than the im-
petuous and tactless Wielopolski headed the civil
government.
To forestall the possibility of a modus vivendi
between the government and the people an irrespon-
sible band among the Reds decided to employ terror-
istic tactics. In June, 1862, a Russian military officer
belonging to the revolutionary party shot and
wounded the military governor in retaliation for the
death sentence imposed upon his three colleagues in
the army. Upon the arrival of Grand Duke Con-
486 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
stantine an entirely unwarranted attempt was made
upon his life by a Polish tailor, a member of the ter-
roristic organization. Several weeks later two suc-
cessive attempts were made on the life of the Mar-
grave, but both failed. These mad acts met with the
deserved condemnation of the country. It was shared
by both the Whites and the Reds. The Central Com-
mittee of the Revolutionary Party declared that it had
nothing to do with them. But in spite of that the
government proceeded to avenge the irresponsible
acts of the terrorists. Even the most conservative
among the Whites, who, like Count Andrew Zamoy-
ski, condemned the terror in no mistaken terms, were
exiled from the country. Wielopolski raged with fury.
Many persons on mere suspicion were put into jail or
sent to Siberia. To cap his policy of senseless ven-
geance, the Margrave conceived a dangerous expedi-
ent of "kidnapping the opposition." He determined
to pick out a large number of men from the city work-
ing classes and from the floating element in the
country estates who constituted the bulk of the revolu-
tionary contingent, and to enroll them forcibly in regi-
ments stationed in remote regions of Russia. This
lawless and arbitrary act roused the country and ex-
pedited and armed uprising. The Central Committee
of the Revolutionary Party made frantic efforts to
postpone the outbreak until sufficient stores of am-
munition arrived from abroad, but could not control
the situation when the time arrived for carrying into
effect Wielopolski's order. On January 22, 1863, the
Central Committee, assuming the name of the Pro-
visional National Government, proclaimed the revo-
lution.
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 487
The night of January 22, 1863, was the beginning
of a new uprising against Russian rule. It broke out
at a moment when general quiet pre-
P 1 * . vailed in Europe and in Russia, and
of ises when the Revolutionary Party had not
sufficient means to arm and equip the
bands of young men who were hiding in forests to
escape Wielopolski's order of conscription into the
Russian army. Altogether about ten thousand men
rallied around the revolutionary banner; they were
recruited chiefly from the ranks of the city working
classes and minor clerks, although there was also a
considerable admixture of the younger sons of the
poorer country squires and a number of priests of
lower rank. To deal with these ill-armed bands the
government had at its disposal a well trained army
of ninety thousand men under General Ramsay in Po-
land, sixty thousand troops in Lithuania and forty-five
thousand in Volhynia. It looked as if the rebellion
would be crushed in a short while. The die was cast,
however, and the provisional government applied it-
self to the great task with fervor. It issued a mani-
festo in which it pronounced "all sons of Poland free
and equal citizens without distinction of creed, con-
dition and rank." It declared that "land cultivated
by the peasants, whether on the basis of rent-pay or
service, henceforth should become their uncondi-
tional property, and compensation for it would be
given to the landlords out of the general funds of the
State." The revolutionary government did its very
best to supply and provision the unarmed and scat-
tered guerrillas who, during the month of February,
met the Russians in eighty bloody encounters. Mean-
while, it issued an appeal to the nations of western
Europe, which was received everywhere with a genu-
ine and heartfelt response, from Norway to Portugal.
488 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Pope Pius IX ordered a special prayer for the success
of the Polish arms, and was very active in arousing
sympathy for the suffering nation. The provisional
government counted on a revolutionary outbreak in
Russia, where the discontent with the autocratic re-
gime seemed at the time to be widely prevalent. It also
counted on the active support of Napoleon III, par-
ticularly after Prussia, foreseeing an inevitable armed
conflict with France, made friendly overtures to Rus-
sia and offered her assistance in suppressing the Po-
lish uprising. On the 14th day of February arrange-
ments had already been completed, and the British
Ambassador in Berlin was able to inform his govern-
ment that a Prussian military envoy "has concluded a
military convention with the Russian Government,
according to which the two governments will recipro-
cally afford facilities to each other for the suppres-
sion of the insurrectionary movements which have
lately taken place in Poland . . . The Prussian
railways are also to be placed at the disposal of the
Russian military authorities for the transportation
of troops through Prussian territory from one part
of the Kingdom of Poland to another . . . "* This
step of Bismarck's led to protests on the part of sev-
eral governments and roused the Polish nation. The
result was the transformation of the insignificant
uprising into another national war against Russia.
Encouraged by the promises made by Napoleon III,
the whole nation, acting upon the advice of Wlady-
slav Czartoryski, the son of Prince Adam, took to
arms. Indicating their solidarity with the nation,
all the Poles holding office under the Russian Govern-
ment, including the Archbishop of Warsaw, resigned
their positions and submitted to the newly consti-
*J. Ellis Barker, 1. c., p. 100.
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 489
tuted Polish Government, which was composed x of five
most prominent representatives of the Whites. This
transformation of the insurrection into a war changed
the whole aspect of the situation. An army of thirty
thousand men was soon organized and new additions
were made. The rich elements in the cities as well as
FIG. 218 SYMBOL OF WAR
(From the series of drawings on "War" by Arthur Grottger)
in the country districts offered large sums of money.
The nobility of Galicia and the Duchy of Posen sup-
ported the war with money, supplies and men. Lithu-
ania rose and soon the flame of war spread over
Livonia, White Russia, Volhynia, Podolia and even
in some places in LTkraine. The diplomatic inter-
vention of the Powers in behalf of Poland, not sus-
490 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tained, except in the case of Sweden, by a real deter-
mination on their part to do something effective for
her, did more harm than good, as mere verbosity often
does. Tt alienated Austria which hitherto had main-
tained a friendly neutrality with reference to Poland
and had not interferred with the Polish activities in
Galicia. It prejudiced public opinion among the radical
FIG. 219 A -LITHUANIAN INSURRECTIONIST
(From the Series "Lithuania" by Arthur Grottger)
groups in Russia who, until that time, had been friendly
because they regarded the uprising as of a social rather
than a national character and it stirred the Russian
Government to more energetic endeavors toward the
speedy suppression of hostilities which were growing
in strength and determination. By bringing about a
transfer of the reins of government from the hands of
the progressives into those of the conservatives,
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 491
foreign intervention was indirectly responsible for the
alienation of the former enthusiastic support which
the peasants gave to the uprising. The conservative
government did not make such sweeping promises of
land distribution as were given in the declaration of
the revolutionary provisional government. Prince
Peter Kropotkin in his "Memoirs" gives interesting
information as to the consternation the grim turn
FIG. 220 A BATTLE
(From the series "Polonia" by Arthur Grottger)
taken by the war was creating in the official circles of
Russia, and how the failure of the Polish government
to satisfy the peasants was craftily exploited in the
interests of Russia. To quote Kropotkin:
"Full advantage was taken of this mistake (on the part of
the Polish government) when Nicholas Milutin was sent to
Poland by Alexander II with the mission of liberating the
peasants in the way he intended doing it in Russia, whether the
landlords were ruined or not. 'Go to Poland ; apply there
your red program against the Polish landlords/ said Alexander
492 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
TI to him, and Milutin, together with Prince Cherkassky and
many others, really did their best to take the land from the
landlords and give good-sized allotments to the peasants . . .
One can imagine the effect which such a policy had upon the
peasants. A cousin of mine was in Poland or in Lithuania
with his regiment of uhlans of the guard. The revolution was
so serious that even the regiments of the guard had been sent
from St. Petersburg against it, and it is now known that when
Michael Muravioff was sent to Lithuania and went to take
leave of the Empress Marie, she said to him : 'Save at least
Lithuania for Russia!' Poland was regarded as lost.
" 'The armed bands of the revolutionists held the country,'
my cousin said to rne, 'and we were powerless to defeat them,
or even to find them. Small bands over and over again at-
tacked our smaller detachments, and as they fought admirably
and knew the country and found support among the popula-
tion, they often had the best of the skirmishes. We were
thus compelled to march in large columns only. We would
cross a region, marching through the woods, without finding
any trace of the bands ; but when we marched back again we
learned that the bands had reappeared in our rear ; that they
had levied the patriotic tax in the country ; and if some peasant
had rendered himself useful in any way to our troops, we found
him hanged on a tree by the revolutionary bands. So it went
on for months, with no chance for improvement, until Milutin
and Cherkassky came and freed the peasants, giving them the
land. Then all Avas over.'
"I once met one of the Russian functionaries who went to
Poland under Milutin and Cherkassky. 'We had full liberty,'
he said, to turn over the land to the peasants. My usual plan
was to go and convoke the peasants' assembly.
" 'Tell me first,' I would say, 'what land do you hold at this
moment?' They would point it out to me.
" 'Is this all the land you ever held?' I would then ask.
" 'Surely not,' they would reply with one voice. 'Years
ago these meadows were ours ; this wood was once in our pos-
session, these fields, too,' they would say.
"I would let them go on talking and then would ask:
" 'Now, which of you can certify under oath that this or
that land has ever been held by you?' Of course, there would
be nobody forthcoming it was all too long ago. At last
some old man would be thrust out from the crowd, the rest
saying:
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 493
' 'He knows all about it ; he can swear to it.'
"The old man would begin a long story about what he
knew in his youth, or had heard from his father, but I would
cut the story short ....
" 'State on oath what you know to have been held by the
gmina (the village community) and the land is yours.' And
as soon as he took the oath one could trust the oath implicitly
I wrote out the papers and declared to the assembly :
" 'Now, this land is yours. You stand no longer under
any obligations whatever to your late masters ; you are simply
their neighbors; all you will have to do is to pay the redemp-
tion tax, so much every year, to the government. Your home-
steads go with the land : you get them free.' " *
How Muravioff, the Hangman, proceeded in
Lithuania is too weird to describe. In addition to the
thousands who fell in battles, one hun-
^ re< ^ anc ^ twenty-eight men were exe-
cuted by his order, and nine thousand
four hundred and twenty-three men and women were
exiled to Siberia. Whole villages and towns were
burned to the last beam; all activities were suspended
and the gentry was ruined by confiscation and exor-
bitant taxes. Count Berg, the newly appointed Gover-
nor-General of Poland, followed in MuraviofFs foot-
steps, employing inhumanly harsh measures against
the country. The Reds criticised the Conservative gov-
ernment for its reactionary policy with reference to
the peasants but, deluded in its hopes by Napoleon III,
the Government counted on French support and per-
sisted in its tactics. It was only after the highly
respected and wise Romuald Traugiitt took matters
in hand that the aspect of the situation became
brighter. He reverted to the policy of the first pro-
visional government and endeavored to bring the
peasant masses into active participation by granting
to them the land they worked and calling upon all
* P. Kropotkin: "Memoirs of a Revolutionist." Boston: Houghton,
Mifflin & Co., 1899, pp. 174-180.
494 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
classes to rise. The response was generous but not
universal. The wise policy was adopted too late.
The Russian Government had already been working
among the peasants in the manner above described
and giving to them liberal parcels of land for the mere
asking. They were completely satisfied, and though
not interfering with the revolutionaries to any great
extent, became lukewarm to- them. Fighting con-
tinued intermittently for several months. Among the
generals Count Joseph Hauke distinguished himself
most as a commander of the revolutionary forces and
took several cities from the vastly superior Russian
army. When Traugutt and the four other members
of the Polish Government were apprehended by Rus-
sian troops and executed at the Warsaw citadel, the
war in the course of which six hundred and fifty battles
and skirmishes were fought and twenty-five thousand
Poles killed, came to a speedy end in the latter half of
1864, having lasted for eighteen months. It is of in-
terest to note that it persisted in Zmudz and Podlasie,
where the Uniate population, outraged and perse-
cuted for their religious convictions, clung longest to
the revolutionary banner.
After the collapse of the uprising the Russian
Government was at liberty to indulge in vengeance and
the opportunity was not missed. Ac-
C Ven f h cording to Russian official information,
three hundred and ninety-six persons
Government wef e executed and eighteen thousand six
hundred and seventy-two were exiled
to Siberia. Large numbers of men and women were
sent to the interior of Russia and to Caucasus, Ural
and other sections. Altogether about seventy thou-
sand persons were imprisoned and subquently taken
out of Poland and stationed in the remote regions of
Russia. The government confiscated sixteen hun-
496 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
dred and sixty estates in Poland and seventeen hun-
dred and ninety-four in Lithuania. A ten per cent,
income tax was imposed on all estates as a war in-
demnity. Only in 1869 was this exorbitant and
ruinous tax reduced to "five per cent, on all incomes.
Resides the land granted to the peasants, the Russian
Government gave them additional forest, pasture and
other privileges (known under the name of "servi-
tutes") which have proven to be a source of incessant
irritation between the landowners and peasants, and
of serious difficulty to rational economic development.
The government took over all the church estates and
funds, and abolished monasteries and convents. With
the exception of religious instruction, all other studies
in the schools were ordered to be in Russian. Russian
also became the official language of the country, used
exclusively in all offices of the general and local gov-
ernment. All traces of the former Polish autonomy
were removed and the kingdom was divided into ten
provinces, each with an appointed Russian military
governor and all under complete control of the Gov-
ernor-General at Warsaw. All the. former govern-
ment functionaries were deprived of their positions,
and in Poland alone about fourteen thousand Poles
were thrown out to care for themselves and their
families as well as they could.
In Lithuania the Russian officials set themselves
to the task of obliterating Polish culture. As in Po-
land, all libraries and museums were re-
moved to Russia. Associations of every
Lithuania 1-1 11 r^t e
kind were closed. Ine continuation of
a Polish newspaper that had been published in Wilno
since 1750 was prohibited. The confiscated estates
were awarded to Russian officials. Every oppor-
tunity was used to dispossess Polish landowners from
their homesteads. Over eight hundred families were
UPRISING OF MM AMD ERA OF POSITIVISM 497
forced to sell their estates and all of them went to
Russians, as, by the ukase of the Tsar proclaimed in
1865, only Russians had the right to buy land in Lithu-
ania and Ruthenia. As long as Russian rule lasted the
Poles could not acquire land in two sections of the for-
mer Polish Republic. The impoverished Polish nobles
who did not own any real estate were ordered to leave
the country and were forcibly settled in Russia. Po-
lish speech was prohibited in public places. Severe
punishment was prescribed for teaching reading or
writing outside of school buildings. Polish display
signs over stores, Polish posters or advertisements of
any kind came under the ban of the law. Even the
cab drivers had not escaped the watchful eye of the
Russian officials: they were ordered to dress, as
well as to fix the harness of their horses, in the Rus-
sian style. The names of the cities were Russified and
Russian colonization was strongly encouraged. Par-
ticularly severe limitations were imposed upon the
Roman Catholic Church. During the seven years
following the revolution only ten priests were or-
dained in Lithuania. Meetings of priests were pro-
hibited as were also public prayers, processions,
renovation of church buildings or displays of crosses.
A very strict police control was exercised over the
priests. As in Poland, Roman Catholic religious
orders were abolished. Thousands of Catholic com-
municants were forced to join Greek Orthodox
churches and many Roman churches were trans-
formed into Orthodox places of worship. Efforts
were made to supplement the prayers in Polish by
special prayers in the Russian tongue. Religious in-
struction in the Lithuanian schools was to be given
in Russian. As a result of these Russian iniquities
with reference to the Roman Catholic Church in Po-
land and Lithuania. Pope Pius IX severed diplo-
498
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
matic relations with Russia in 1865. The Poles were
removed from all government positions, from service
on railways, banks and similar public institutions.
The publishing of books and periodicals in either the
Polish or Lithuanian language was made illegal. Only
FIG. 222 THE CHURCH OF ST. ANN IN WILNO
in 1904 were the Lithuanians again granted the use of
Latin characters. The laws of 1864 were later recon-
firmed in 1894, and the rigor continued unabated. In
recognition of the distinguished services rendered to
the cause of Russia by Muravioff, the Russian Gov-
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIJO&M 499
ernment erected a monument to him at Wilndjn 1898,
and in 1904 a monument was raised there in honor of
Catherine the Great. Fearing lest the two bronze
monuments be used for making howitzers by the Ger-
mans, the Russian authorities, ordered their transfer
to Moscow at the time of their recent hasty evacua-
tion of the ancient Lithuanian capital in 1915, and it
FIG. L'23 -CSTRA BRAMA," AN ANCIENT CITY GATE OF WILNO
was with sincere joy that the population saw these
emblems of oppression and outrage leave the country
on their way east.
Following the introduction of "reforms" a severe
and stupid censorship was saddled upon Poland and
Lithuania, which stifled every thought
and which often distorted the meaning
t/ensorsnip . .
of the most innocent expressions by the
censor's substitution of words that were more to his
500 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
liking- and sounded less revolutionary. Madame
Modjeska, in her "Memoirs," relates some of her ex-
periences with the Warsaw censor and the difficulties
she experienced in introducing plays she liked.
"It was very easy to get approval of the modern French
plays. Even when the plays were not highly moral, they
were kindly dealt with, but our censor always objected to the
poetic drama. He seemed to have a special pleasure in cutting
my speeches in such a way that it was quite impossible to get
any sense out of them. It was annoying and sometimes quite
ridiculous, and our actors had a great deal of fun every time a
play came from the censor's office. Every noble sentiment
was forbidden. Even some of the words were found disloyal,
among others, the word 'Slave.' In one of the melodramas it
was cut out and replaced by the word 'negro/ and the sentence,
which ran as follows : 'He was a slave to his passion,' was
changed to 'He was a negro to his passion !' On another oc-
casion a Catholic priest had to say, 'I love my country and my
people, and I shall never leave them.' The words 'country and
people' were replaced by 'wife and children !' In another play
the words 'He walked" arm in arm with the emperor and
whispered in his ear,' were changed to 'He walked three steps
behind the emperor and whispered in his ear !' On still another
occasion the censor refused to allow the playing of Slowacki's
'Mazepa' because there was a Polish king in it. He said to me :
" 'A Polish King? Who ever heard of such an absurd
thing! Polish Kings never existed. There are only Russian
emperors of Poles and of all the Russias; you understand,
Madam?' When I tried to persuade him of his error, he cut
me short with the words :
" 'Do not think of it. It will never do, never!' " *
The novel, the drama and the newspapers had to
adapt themselves to these conditions of censorship
and to establish certain conventions of style which
would be understood by everybody. In this way a
peculiar type of writing developed. The public could
read between the lines and a great many things were
* Memories and Impressions of Helena Modjeska. An Autobi-
ography, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1910, pp. 185, 190.
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 501
FIG. 224 ORNAMENTS WORN BY THE WOMEN OF POLAND IN TOKEN OF
NATIONAL MOURNING (1863)
502 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
said and a great many books were published whose
intent and ideas were not in conformity with the
standards of the censor.
Passive and powerless resignation took hold of
the country in the face of the fresh calamities which
befell it. Life became divested of all
The Era of possibilities for normal development
its?eflection d anc * a ^ ee P gl omse ttled upon the hearts
in Literature an ^ minds of the people. The profuse
bloodletting weakened the national
body and sapped its vitality. Poland became pain-
fully conscious of the fact that she was abandoned by
everybody and that her ideals were farther from
realization than ever before. She saw that under the
new regime she would be unable to continue the tra-
ditions of her cultural past and to take an active part
in the progress of civilization. An European nation,
par excellence, with an ancient, distinct and fine
culture, was, by force of arms, stripped of its heritage
and forced, bound hand and foot, into a narrow mould
of foreign, semi-Oriental life that was suffocating and
loathsome. The Russian bureaucrat, the chihovnik
and the Cossack became the absolute masters of the
life and death of the people. All the multifarious and
onerous taxes collected in the country went to
strengthen the resources of the Russian Empire, and
only such crumbs were appropriated for improve-
ments in Poland as the vindictive Russian Govern-
ment would grant. The inhabitants and rightful
owners of the country had no voice in the manage-
ment of it, even in an advisory capacity. Their chil-
dren had to attend Russian schools, a few of which
had been established, and the youth went to a Russian
university. Everything Polish was discriminated
against and the feelings of the people outraged at
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
503
504
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
every turn. The ignorance and superstition of the
peasantry was fostered by the patronizing officialdom.
The activities of the local self-government of the
peasants were carefully supervised and guided by the
Russian agents. The governors and the curators of
(Portrait by Pilatti)
FIG. 220 JOSEPH IONACB KUASZKWSKI (1812-18S7)
education were ruthless in their oppression, and the
only method of obtaining individual relief from their
official iniquities was by bribery. Russian bureau-
cratic corruption was by force of circumstances
grafted upon Polish everyday life.
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 505
The nation had to submit to this order of things.
As no political life was possible, the leaders urged
the adoption of a program fitted to the circumstances:
work along general organic development, with parti-
cular encouragement of modern commerce, industry
and advanced agriculture. Darwinism and Spencer-
ism, then corning to the front, furnished the philo-
FIG. 227 BOLESLAV PHUS.
the pseiulonym of Alexander
Glowacki (1847-1912)
sophical basis for the new social and economic policy
which in contradistinction to the idealistic tendencies
of the former generations was styled as that of Posi-
tivism.
Literature which nowhere else perhaps, reflects
the intellectual and spiritual life of the people so faith-
fully as in Poland, echoed almost immediately the
new tendencies. Joseph Ignace Kraszewski, the Po-
506
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
lish Dickens, a man of a versatile mind and of a re-
markable facility of writing, though belonging to the
passing generation, well appreciated the spirit of the
new age and contributed a number of novels exalting
the ideal of work and accomplishment ("Resurrec-
turi")and ridiculing the unproductive dreamer ("Blue
Almonds") and the sluggish ways of the country
FIG. 228 ELIZA ORZESZKOWA (1842-1910)
squires ("Morituri"). When the Positivist pendulum
swung somewhat too far and threatened to divert the
mind of the people from the past national ideals,
Kraszewski began his remarkable series of historical
novels for which, as well as for his indefatigable ef-
forts in promoting the education of the masses, his
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
507
name will long be remembered in Polish history. It
was the fund collected on the occasion of his 75th.
birthday that made possible the establishment of the
''School Mother," an organization to promote ele-
mentary education among the people. It was launched
in Galicia in 1882 and has been carrying on very
useful and effective work ever since.
The truest exponents of the positivist era in Po-
lish literature are Boleslav Prus, Eliza Orzeszkowa
FIG. 229 ALEXANDER SWIENTOCHOWSKI
Editor of "Prawda" (The Truth), a very influential progressive
weekly magazine published in Warsaw
and Alexander Swientochowski. In their short stories,
novels, dramas and feuilletons they portrayed and
analyzed the changing social and economic conditions
and the problems which these changes created in the
environment and in the individual and collective psy-
chology. The relations of the peasant to the other
classes of society, the emancipation of women and
their new opportunities, the relation of the individual
to society, the clashes between individual and social
508
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
duties, the ignorance of the masses, the struggle of
the peasant with the efforts of the Prussian coloniza-
tion commission, the ferment in the life of the Jews
under changing conditions, found a sympathetic and
highly artistic description and analysis in the writings
of that period. All three of the above mentioned
writers were ceaseless in their propagation of humani-
FIG. 230 HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ (1846-1916)
tarian ideals and of strict performance of duty. They
fought obfuscation and slothfulness and preached the
gospel of work and accomplishment. Their influence
was profound and lasting: Their writings, remark-
able for style and beauty and scintillating with modern
ideas, are lasting contributions to the thesaurus of the
world's literature. Another writer of the same period
who achieved great fame was Henryk Sienkiewicz.
UPRISING OF 1803 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
509
He also started out as a champion of Positivist ideals,
but his great talent was more at ease in painting
pictures of by-gone days and he struck a deep chord
in the Polish soul by rekindling the pride of past
glory. His incomparable descriptions of the pictur-
esque life of Poland of the XVTIth century with its
FIG. 231 STANISLAV MONIUSZKO (1819-1872)
Composer of Polish National Music
wars and glories, its free expansion and remarkable
characters added greatly to the strengthening of
patriotic and national feelings of a generation brought
up under the indescribable oppression of Russia and
Prussia. A similar "sursum corda" was afforded by
the national music and national operas of Stanislav
Moniuszko of which "Halka" is the most popular, and
510 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 232 JAN MATEYKO (1838-1893)
Master of Polish Historical Painting
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
511
by the historic paintings of the great masters Jan Ma-
teyko and Arthur Grottger.
Although the Positivist era deprecated poetry,
the period abounded in a number of poets of great
distinction, of which at "least two, Adam Asnyk and
Maria Konopnicka, should be mentioned because of
the influence they exercised on their generation.
FIG. 233 STANISLAV WYSPIArtSKI (1869-1907)
Poet and Painter, the greatest of modern Polish writers
Asnyk, a peer in style and delicacy of feeling, became
the poetic interpreter of the tendencies of his time and
Konopnicka was the inspired champion of the down-
trodden and of those who toil in the factories and
fields.
The end of the XTXth century witnessed another
mighty turn in the evolution of Polish letters and
512
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
poetry. Jan Kasprowicz, Kazimir Tetmayer and Jan
Staff, in verse; Sieroszewski, Zeromski, Reymont,
Weyssenhof and Danilowski, in prose; Zulawski,
Przybyszewski, and above all the giant Wyspianski,
in drama, created a new epoch-making era in Polish
literature. The creative genius of the nation, pre-
vented from finding adequate expression for itself in
FIG. 235 STEFAN zEROMSKI
(pseudonym: Mauryoy Zych)
the multifarious endeavors which normal national life
affords, concentrated, as it were, in the sphere of lit-
erature and the other forms of art. There is hardly
another people among whom art, science and litera-
ture occupy such an exalted position as among the
Poles and where so much talent is devoted to these
pursuits of life.
513
The "red program" of Milutin, referred to in the
above quotation from Kropotkin, coupled with the
ruinous Russian system of taxation and
administration, had thrown out of the
saddle a vast number of families belong-
ing to the gentry class. Unable to meet
the onerous requirements imposed upon
them or to adapt themselves to changed
conditions, they were driven to the wall.
Thousands of families became ruined and flocked to
Social and
Economic
Changes
Following the
Collapse of the
Revolution
FIG. 234 JOSEPH 2ULAWSKI
(1874-1915)
Poet, Philosopher and Dramatist. Died on the field
of honor during the Great War as an officer of
the Polish Legions.
the cities, swelling the ranks of "the intellectual prole-
tariat" as they were called. It was a hard task for
them to become accustomed to urban occupations. Ill
prepared to compete with the city element they could
not avail themselves of the opportunities for com-
mercial and industrial pursuits offered at the time,
because of their proud family traditions. The op-
portunities were "considerable on account of the ex-
tension of the domestic market resulting from the
change in the status of the peasantry and from their
514
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
acquisition of a purchasing power which they had
not possessed in by-gone days. Gradually, however,
adaptation to environment took place, technical ex-
perts developed and the economic evolution of the
country received a powerful boom. When, in the
seventies, Russia, needing additional funds to finance
the war with Turkey, considerably raised the cus-
tom duties and built a high protective wall, Polish
manufactures found themselves practically without
foreign competition and with enormous markets in
FIG. 236 GRAND THEATRE OF WARSAW
the east. Agents of the industrial countries arrived
in considerable numbers and established large fac-
tories, taking advantage of the great natural re-
sources of the country, its abundance of coal, iron,
zinc and lead and of the immense supply of relatively
cheap labor. The small peasant landowners were un-
able to eke out enough from their farms to meet the
high Russian taxes, and tens of thousands of them
flocked to the cities. In a decade or two the coun-
try's economic basis of existence swung from agri-
culture to industry. In 1909 over a million and a
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 515
quarter tons of iron ore were extracted and about
four and a half million tons were smelted. The a'n-
nual production of calamine was 100,000 tons and that
of coal was estimated as sufficiently large to supply
all France.* Poland became one of the most highly
developed industrial countries of Europe with a dens-
ity of population surpassed by Belgium alone. War-
saw, on account of its central geographic position,
grew by leaps and bounds, and reached, including the
population of its suburbs, the million mark. New
FIG. 237 THE CITY OF L6DZ, THE MANCHESTER OF POLAND
cities sprang up and small towns, like Lodz, developed
prodigiously. It was due to the enterprise of the
foreign and native capitalists, to the skill of the Polish
engineers and technicans, and to the intelligence and
conscientiousness of the Polish workmen that indus-
tries could not only maintain themselves profitably,
but even increase in bulk and productivity in spite of
the difficulties placed in their way by the regulations
* S. Posner: ''Poland as an Independent Economic Unit" London:
Geo. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1916, pp. 11-12.
516 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of the Russian government. Fearing lest the Polish
industries supplant the Russian manufactures, the
government so regulated railway tariffs that it was
much cheaper to ship the same kind of goods from
points in Russia to destinations in Poland, than from
the same places in Poland to points in Russia. Fac-
tory regulations were made more cumbersome in Po-
land than in Russia and taxation higher. The pur-
poseful undevelopment of railway facilities in Po-
land interfered with proper local distribution and
tended, in addition -to other causes, to thwart the
FIG. 238 THE PHILHARMONIC HALL AT WARSAW
development of those industries of the preceding
period which had been producing exclusively for the
Polish market and to specialize in exports to the Em-
pire. This led to centralization of capital in certain
industries like the textile and steel and iron, and de-
terred diversification of production. Some of the
daily necessaries of life, like products of leather, horn,
bone and wood, building materials, soap, candles,
glass, porcelain, were imported in large quantities
from Russia. It became more profitable to specialize
in certain staple commodities for export and to dis-
UPRISING OF l63 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
517
regard the home market. From a political standpoint
this development had important consequences and
created a peculiar situation. Foreign capital, attracted
to the country by the latent possibilities and enormous
financial gains, had turned Poland into an economic
dependent of Russia and created a new political phi-
losophy, of the "dollar diplomacy" type, based on
loyalty "without reservations" because of the lucra-
tive Far East markets of the Russian Empire. The
rich manufacturers became the spiritual heirs of the
FIG. 239 THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS AT WARSAW
old Polish "kinglets," the magnates, who, for personal
gain, had sacrificed the vital interests of the nation.
Tn spite of the industrial expansion of the country
hundreds of thousands of manual workers were im-
pelled to seek work abroad, especially in the United
States and also in Germany whither they flocked in
large numbers every spring for work in the fields.
Many thousands among the young Polish engineers
and chemists were induced to go to Russia and many
of them, attracted by the very high compensation
professional service commands because of its scarcity,
518 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
settled there permantly. The large exodus of the
most robust and enterprising elements among the
working class was due to a number of causes, chief
among which were the lure of the high American
wages for unskilled labor, the oppression on the part
of the government and the economic exploitation on
the part of the industrial corporations.
The fact that a large percentage of the business
capital in Poland was foreign and the government in-
tensely inimical to progress, was re-
Socialism and sponsible for the disregard on the part
the People's 5 , . , . . . r ii.
Party of the industrial corporations for the
broader social needs of the country
and their unscrupulous exploitation of the working
masses. Unable, on account of government pro-
hibitions, to organize themselves into trade unions
for bettering their condition, the workmen formed
secret societies, chiefly of a socialistic character. A
powerful, though officially non-existent, Socialist
Party arose and found tens of thousands of sym-
pathizers among the intellectual elements of the
cities who were attracted to the organization not only
because of their sympathy with the exploited work-
man and their love for democracy, but also because
of the fact that the more important wing of the Polish
Socialist Party, known as the P. P. S., strange as it
may seem for a Socialist body, inscribed in its plat-
form the blunt demand for Poland's independence.
The development of the philosophy of Polish Social-
ism constitutes one of the most interesting chapters
in the evolution of political thought. The foremost
Socialist writers like Boleslav Limanowski, Ignace
Daszynski, Kazimir Krauz and Titus Filipowicz em-
phasized the importance of an independent state for
the proper development of the masses of the Polish
people, and pointed out the psychological and socio-
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 519
logical weaknesses of internationalism. The famous
speech of Bebel, delivered in October, 1891, at a Social-
ist Congress, created a deep impression in Poland. In
the course of that speech Bebel said: "If France and
Russia should join in a war against Germany, then the
Germans will fight for their existence and the war will
become a struggle of extermination. The Socialists
will then be compelled to help those classes whom they
always fought, as the triumph of barbarism will mean
a setback of many years to socialism. It is urgently
necessary to push Russia to the East and to revive a
new Poland, a democratic Poland." This speech by
the high priest of socialism, seconded a year after-
ward by Engels and Liebknecht, was a revelation to
the narrow Polish sectarians and dreamers. It be-
came clear that to advocate a national Polish state
was not preaching treason against the principles of
socialism. As a consequence, the break from interna-
tionalism was precipitous and popular. Only a small
minority refused to follow the general current and
banded together under the name of the "Social
Democratic Party of Poland and Lithuania."
The only other party which, like the socialists,
stood on a basis of complete national independence
was the People's Party which, as its name indicates,
comprised mainly the lower elements of the urban
and the rural populace. The banner of independent
Poland was thus wrested from the hands of the
nobility by the toiling masses of the cities and
villages, who had just begun to come into their
own. The two independence parties could not work
openly in Russian Poland but they none the less
reached a high degree of development in both Russian
Poland and Galicia, and wielded considerable political
influence. The beginnings of the People's Party are
520 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
traceable to the organization by T. T. Jez (Col. Zyg-
mtmt Milkowski) of the "Polish League" in Switzer-
land in the eighties at the time when Russian govern-
mental repression and the loyalism of the Polish
upper and middle classes reached their high water
marks. The occasion for the launching of the League
at that moment was the impending war between
Austria and Russia. Its aim was the creation of a
war fund for the equipment of an army against Russia
FIG. 240 THOMAS THEODORE JEZ
Pseudonym of Zygmunt Milkowski (1824-1915), Soldier, Publicist, Novelist
and the stirring up of the public opinion of Europe
which had entirely forgotten Poland. It was for the
purpose of accumulating means for active steps
against Russia that the National Treasury at Rap-
perswil in St. Gallen, Switzerland, was created. As
the war did not come to pass, the organization, having
changed its name to "National League" limited its
immediate' aims to the fostering of national and
patriotic sentiments among the people and to the
UPRISING O.F 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 521
raising of their educational and economic standards.
The leaders of the People's Party in Russian Poland
were Joseph Potocki and the noted publicist, John
Poplawski, who afterward, together with Roman
Dmowski, distorted the movement, narrowed its
scope and breadth, turned it into a jingo mould and
made it subservient to Russian interests under the
name of the National Democratic Party. That wing
of the People's Party in Russian Poland, which refused
to join the National Democrats clustered around the
National Peasant Union and the National Work-
ingmen's Alliance and remained true to the banner
of independence. In recent years large numbers of
former adherents realized that they have been mis-
guided by the National Democratic leaders and
went over to the independence organizations. This
secession from the National Democratic Party has
been known as the Fronde and has contributed toward
the breaking of the backbone of Mr. Dmowski's
strength and of his political machine. In Galicia a
Peasant Party has been founded and led by Mr. and
Mrs. Wyslouch. The Party has adhered steadfastly
to the ideals of national independence and has exer-
cised a most wholesome, constructive influence. In
1895 the Party was able to elect to the Provincial
Diet seven deputies, famous among whom became the
peasant Jacob Boyko, an orator of great power and a
man of vision and ability.
The economic development of the Prussian part
of Poland followed entirely different lines than that
of Russian Poland but in their political
attitude toward the Poles the Prussians
were not a whit superior to the Mus-
Regime covites. Extreme hatred of everything
Polish is their historical tradition. The
entire country which they claim is built on lands taken
522 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
by force of arms from the Slavs, chiefly the Poles.
Brandenburg, the nucleus of the State, was the first
German outpost in Slavic territory. East Prussia, a
Polish fief, went to them as a heritage of the bloody
Order of the Cross; the purely Polish province of
West Prussia and the Duchy of Posen, the cradle of
the Polish nation, were their share of the partition
pillage while Silesia, an originally Polish land, was
wrested from Austria only half a century ago. In
their haughty disdain and dislike of everything non-
Prussian, they subjected the tenacious and irrepres-
sible Poles to all kinds of indignities and iniquities
conceivable. And yet, to quote the words of Mr.
Asquith, uttered recently in reply to the parliamen-
tary speech of Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, "the
attempt to Germanize Poland has been at once the
strenuous purpose and colossal failure of the Prussian
domestic policy." To a great extent this failure was
due to the untiring efforts of the Polish clergy to
protect the Church from the onslaught of the "Kul-
turkampf." The coincidence of the persecution of
the national and the religious attachments of the
Poles, both in Russia and Prussia, has tended to
strengthen the historic tradition that originated with
the Vasa period in the XVIIth century, that Polish
nationality and Roman Catholicism are inseparable
and has assured to the clergy an important position
in Polish life. To this day one can find among the
backward peasants in Russian and Prussian Poland
many who, when asked about their nationality will
reply that they are Catholics, and who will speak of
a German as a Lutheran and of a Russian as an Ortho-
dox. In the Duchy of Posen, since the dawn of the
"organic" or "positivist" era the priests have been
active in organizing co-operative societies, loan asso-
ciations, trade circles and benefit funds among the
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
523
city workingmen and peasants, and have stimulated
self-help and developed political and social instincts.
The great success obtained has been due in no mean
degree to the administrative and financial genius of
Father Wawrzyniak. In politics, however, they were
extreme loyalists and at times subordinated the na-
FIG. 241 FATHER WAWRZYNIAK
The highly gifted organizer of the Polish peasants in opposition to the
Prussian Colonization Commission
tional interests to those of the Church. Yet, during
the "Kulturkampf" the loyal Archbishop of Gnesen,
Cardinal Ledochowski, two other bishops and many
priests were arrested and some exiled from the coun-
try. The "Kulturkampf" of Bismarck was particu-
larly bitter in the Polish provinces because here it
524 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
was not only directed against the Catholic Church
but also against the Polish race. All schools, relig-
ious orders and civic agencies were closed and the
jails rilled to overflowing with recalcitrant peasants
and workmen. Under the pretext of freeing the
Polish schools from the control of the clergy the
Prussian government entrusted all the supervisory
activities in the Polish schools to German inspectors.
Soon the Polish language was barred from all gram-
mar and high schools in the Duchy of Posen, West
Prussia and Silesia, and the teachers were selected
exclusively from among the Germans. When the
German Imperial Union was established, the Polish
provinces, in spite of the specific guarantees given to
them in the Treaty of Vienna, were made a part of
Prussia with no recognition of their national char-
acter and all the protests of the Polish representatives
proved of no avail. The world failed to take cogniz-
ance of this breach of international law. When, in
1873, Prussia introduced certain internal reforms
granting more home rule to her cities, the Polish
provinces were excluded from the provisions of the
new law. In 3876 the Polish language was super-
seded by the German in all official, civil, judicial and
administrative transactions. The guaranteed and
sworn Polish autonomy dwindled, and in order to
obliterate all traces of the national character of the
provinces, the Government proceeded to change the
names of places, substituting German designations
for the ancient Polish ones, and accordingly Leszno
was named Lissa, Chelmno Kulm, Pila became
known as Schneidemiihl, and so along the line
with every town and hamlet. The Poles were de-
prived of their constitutional right to assemble and
hold peaceful meetings if Polish were spoken at such
gatherings. To circumvent this restriction, business
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 525
at Polish assemblies was transacted with the aid of
blackboards and chalk. The law did not prohibit
the employment of these accessories at Polish gather-
ings. In 1885 an order was issued by Bismarck
directing all Poles who were not Prussian subjects
to leave the country immediately. Within a short
time over forty thousand persons were compelled to
leave their estates or to abandon posts at which they
had been working for years and to seek new homes
in other parts of Poland. In 1886 a Colonization
Commission was established with the aim of buying
out land from the Poles and settling it with German
colonizers. One hundred million marks was voted
for this purpose at the outset. A brutal anti-Polish
orgy spread over all Prussia and Germany. Under
the protectorate of Bismarck a special society was
formed to agitate German public opinion against the
Poles. The Government subsidized this society by
large allowances and carried out its recommendations.
This society, known as the H. K. T. from the initials
of its three founders, Hausemann, Kennemann and
Thiedemann, has carried out, with the personal en-
couragement of Kaiser Wilhelm II, a most pernicious
and vituperative propaganda by means of special pub-
lications, pamphlets, meetings and dramas, and has
been responsible, in a large measure, for fostering
intense animosity between the two races. "Ausrot-
ten!" (Exterminate!) became the slogan of the Ger-
man nation with reference to the Poles, and for the
realization of this inhuman aim no amount of money
was too large. Over ten billion marks were spent for
the purpose. Polish merchants, manufacturers and
workmen were systematically and openly boycotted
and German trade in Poland was heavily subsidized.
The Polish village communities were deprived of their
right of supervision over the village schools and, in
520 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Russian fashion, private instruction outside of the
school buildings was made punishable by heavy penal-
ties. Children became the peculiarly favored butt of
the H. K. T. assaults. In schools they were flogged
for speaking or praying in Polish. When, in 1901,
the parents of the children of the little town of Wrzes-
nia, rose against this barbarous practice on the part
of the teachers, they suffered heavy penalties. The
echo of this case reverberated loudly all over the world,
and for the first time called the attention of the civil-
ized nations to Prussian Kultur which, with refer-
ence to the Poles, bore such a striking resemblance to
the Tsar's conception of government.
Following the Russian policy in Lithuania and
Ruthenia, which forbade the acquisition of real estate
by Poles, and realizing that all the efforts of the
Colonization Commission were in vain in view of
the unexampled attachment of the Polish peasant to
his native land, the Prussian government determined
in 1904 to arrest the. growth of Polish homesteads
by making the building of houses on newly acquired
properties dependent on special permission, which
seldom, if ever, was given. This new limitation did
not stop the efforts of the Poles to get hold of as much
real property as possible. To overcome the restric-
tion, the peasants have followed the example of one
Drzymala and live in houses built on wheels, in this
manner circumventing the spirit of the restriction, for
the law does not as yet prohibit a Pole from living in
a wagon. It is incredible that a civilized government
should drive people to resort to such means of defence
in the struggle for self-preservation. The Prussian in-
humanity had at least one redeeming feature, for by its
constant pressure it created a healthy reaction. Ger-
man thoroughness and efficiency have called forth an
equal measure of preparation and co-operation. Ger-
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 527
man methods were imitated to defeat German aggres-
sion. The Peasant Bank of Posen and its large
number of local branches has successfully competed
with the Colonization Bank. In thrift and product-
iveness the Polish peasant became equal, if not supe-
rior, to the German Michel. In endurance and educa-
tion he is similarly his equal. He is as progressive
and as prosperous as the German peasant and his
standards of life and requirement have become in-
finitely higher than those of his brother in Russian
Poland, to whom the Russian Government has denied
all the achievements of European civilization. The
German system of compulsory education though
resented by the Poles because of its policy of German-
ization has served, however, to develop the mental
faculties of the Polish peasantry. There is no illit-
eracy in the German part of Poland. On the other
hand, the German hammer stunned, as it were, the
higher creative faculties of the Poles. Very few
great artists and writers have appeared in Prussian
Poland, though there have been several notable ex-
ceptions. The cities in German Poland are well
ordered and managed and the population prosperous.
In spite of all the repressions, the number of daily
Polish newspapers and the consumption of Polish
literature in German Poland has increased. Even
Silesia, which was separated from Poland in the
XlVth century has recently seen an awakening and
the people are becoming conscious of their true
national affiliation.
The Austrian defeats in the war with France
in 1859 and subsequently in the war with Prussia in
1866 wrought conspicuous changes in
Gahcian ^ p O jj t j ca i structure of the Hapsburg
Home-Kule . r . TTr1 \ .
domains. When Austria was compelled
to relinquish to the Hohenzollerns the leading part
528
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OP POLAND
in German affairs, she turned her attention to the
peoples inhabiting her own empire. A union was
formed with Hungary and autonomy was granted to
the various component nationalities of Transleithania
and Cisleithania. Galicia received a considerable
measure of home rule, a Provincial Diet at Lemberg
and a recognition of her national and cultural needs.
The Polish language became the official language of
the Province and all instruction in schools, univer-
sities, technical and other colleges was ordered to be
FIG. 242 THE GALICIAN DIET AT L.EMBERG
carried on in the native tongue of the population.
Count Agenor Goluchowski, the former Prime Min-
ister of. the Empire, was appointed the first Polish
Governor under the new order of things and numerous
reforms were effected. The Government granted
several special concessions in the interests of the
large landowners and became otherwise liberal in its
attitude to the Polish province. In recognition of
the special privileges, as well as in token of gratitude
for the introduction of home rule, the aristocracy and
rich nobility of Galicia sent an address to the Em-
UPRISING OP 1863 AND EkA OF POSlT IVISM 52
peror replete with expressions of unbounded loyalty
and thankfulness, ending with the now famous
declaration: "By Thee, Sovereign Lord, we stand
and to stand we wish." The extremists went so far
FIG. 243 COUNT AGENOR GOI.UCHOWSKI, the first Polish Governor of Galicia
in their loyalty to the throne as to oppose vigorously
a plan of Francis Smolka to transform the Dual
Empire into a. confederation of national states. This
loyalty was awarded by a change in the ancient policy
530
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of the Government. The former practice of favoring
the peasants as against the landlords which led to the
bloody carnage of 1846 was now forever abandoned.
The loyalist or conservative Polish party in
Galicia, as well as in the other parts of Poland, gained
FIG. 244 FRANCIS SMOLKA. celebrated Polish statesman
additional strength after Napoleon's defeat in the war
of 1871. France, the only ally Poland had on whom
any hopes at all could be placed, after the humiliating
experience at the hands of Prussian military suprem-
acy, lost her former position and influence as a first
class European power and could not be counted on
any more. Loyalism and positivism seemed to be the
531
only rational slogans for the Polish life under the
circumstances and any hopes for a speedy regaining
of an independent political existence could seemingly
FIG. 245 PRINCE LEON SAPIEHA
Eminent Patriot and the first Marshal of the Galician Diet
be entertained but by dreamers. And yet new cur-
rents were at work and when, during the Russo-
Turkish war in 1877 the revolutionaries of 1863
planned, with the tacit aid of England and of Turkey
to raise again the banner of protest against Russian
532
THE POLITICAL HTSTOkY OF POLAND
oppression, the landed gentry under the leadership
of Prince Sapieha of Galicia supported the project.
When, however, the impending entry of Austria into
the war had been averted, "the Confederacy of the
Polish Nation" was disbanded. The only way unsel-
fish patriots actively demonstrated their feelings
toward Russia was by organizing in Turkey a Polish
legion which fought through the campaign under
Jagmin, alongside of the Turkish army.
FIG. 246 THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM OF LEMBERG
The program of organic development could be
applied in Galicia more successfully than in the other
parts of Poland because of the large measure of politi-
cal freedom enjoyed by that province of the ancient
Republic. The provincial government devoted a
great deal of thought, energy and money to the educa-
tion of the people and numerous schools of all grades
were established. In 1910 in Galicia there were over
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 533
five thousand country schools alone. Likewise ef-
forts were made to organize the creative powers of
the people and to keep alive national traditions and
patriotism. To counteract the injurious effects the
artificial state frontiers had created by thwarting free
intercourse between the three sections of Poland and
by fostering provincial insularity, steps were taken
to hold frequent national gatherings in Galicia.
FIG. 247 THE OSSOLINSKI INSTITUTE AT LEMBERG, comprising a gallery of
paintings and sculpture, a very large numismatic collection and a
library of 142,000 volumes and 5,000 manuscripts
Various anniversaries of events and activities were
celebrated and national associations of all kinds were
encouraged to meet at Cracow or Lemberg. Sum-
mer university courses were opened in the famous
mountain resort at Zakopane and at all these oc-
casions thousands of men and women assembled from
all the parts of Poland. To train the youth of the Prov-
ince in bodily vigor and to prepare them for a possible
call to arms against Russia, societies were formed,
534
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
known as "Nests of Falcons," or "Sokols" in Polish,
where military training was given under the guise of
athletic exercises. The boy-scout movement of a later
period was enthusiastically received in Galicia and
encouraged with a similar purpose in mind.
In spite of the inadequate means due to the
FIG. 248 HOME OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF FINE ARTS AT CRACOW
lack of industrial development of Galicia, the insuf-
ficiency of business and agricultural capital, the ex-
tremely heavy taxation prevailing there as every-
where else in Austria and the policy of the Viennese
government to favor particularly the western prov-
inces of the Empire, Polish self-help was able, with
comparatively small equipment at its command,
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
535
to work wonders in every line of human endeavor.
The cities developed, manufactures increased and in
many branches entered into successful competition
with the industrially older sections of the Empire.
The productivity of the farms grew as education be-
came more broadly disseminated; modern argricul-
tural methods have been adopted and co-operative
rural credit has been organized. The oil industry,
FIG. 249 CITY THEATRE OF CRACOW
after going through several crises, reached a stage
of rational development. Thanks to the ingenuity
of the Polish chemists important by-products of
kerosene oil began to be manufactured as far back as
1853 and found immediate industrial application. The
oil fields of Galicia extending over 19,760 acres have
been systematically worked. Plans have also been
made for the exploitation of recently discovered vast
536
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
coal fields; the mineral wealth of the country is under
proper control and the numerous natural spas are
being built up. Only the salt and potash mines, be-
cause they form a monopoly of the Viennese govern-
ment have not had adequate attention. Local ad-
ministration in Galicia has become efficient; cities
have been well managed and improvements of all
FIG. 250 THE THEATRE OF LEMBERG
kinds introduced. The co-operative movement has
reached a development that compares favorably with
any other country in. Europe; the spirit of self-re-
liance and mutual help has become thoroughly in-
stilled into the minds of the people and labor has
become well organized and politically rife. Through
the university extension courses, popular education
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
537
made great advances and thanks to the compulsory
education law illiteracy has been almost entirely
abolished. Scientific research and literary and artis-
tic life have developed in Galicia more fully than in
any other part of Poland. The Polish universities
at Cracow and Lemberg, the Polytechnical School at
Lemberg, which is one of the largest in Europe, the
Agricultural Academy at Dublany, as well as the
Cracow Academy of Sciences, have made substantial
FIG. 251 POLYTECHNICAL, INSTITUTE OF LEMBERG
contributions to the sum total of human knowledge.
The large public and semi-public libraries contain
valuable collections and stimulate research.
Polish literature has flourished particularly in
Galicia. Half of the 800 periodicals appearing in Po-
land are published in this fragment of the ancient
Republic. Some of the greatest modern writers,
poets and dramatists who, like Wyspianski, are com-
parable with the masters of the Romantic period, could
538 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
publish their works or have them performed only
there. Many of the scientific and literary workers
left Warsaw and settled in Cracow because only in
Austrian Poland could they pursue their work in
science and art without police interference. One can-
not help contemplating how much more hopeless,
sombre and gloomy would have been Poland's lot
FIG. 252 THR AGRICULTURAL ACADEMY AT DUBLANY
without this oasis of freedom that was. afforded in
Galicia!
Desirous as she was to do all in her power to
help the other parts of Poland, Galicia was physically
unable to give shelter and work to all of the spirits
that craved freedom and a safe place to work. Hence
the exodus of hundreds of Polish artists and scien-
tists in search of opportunity. Like Domeyko, the
UPRISING OF 18G3 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM
539
geologist, who after the war of 1831 went to Chile,
made the first survey of that country and subsequently
organized national education there, or like Strzele-
cki who went to explore the mountains of South
Australia, they scattered to almost all of the large
FIG. 253 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AT CRACOW
centers of activity in the Old and New Worlds. There
is hardly an important university or a great temple of
art where Polish workers of first magnitude could not
be found. Marie Sklodowska-Curie, Nencki, Kos-
tanecki, Mikulicz, Marchlewski, Laskowski, Rudzki, v
Narutowicz, Arctowski and Babinski are only a few
540 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
among the scientists who have worked outside of
their native country. Similarly a very large number
of Polish artists and musicians have attained distinc-
tion and fame in foreign lands.
The whole administration of Galicia has been in
Polish hands, thus affording to the natives numerous
opportunities in official life. Many Poles have dis-
tinguished themselves as administrators and legisla-
tors and have been, like Goluchowski, Badeni or
Madeyski, called upon to fill the most responsible
positions in the Imperial Cabinet. Dunayevski re-
FIG. 254 ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS AT CRACOW
organized the finances of the Austro-Hungarian Em-
pire and many other Poles, like Bilinski and Korytow-
ski, followed him as finance ministers. Similarly, the
diplomatic and consular service, the army and the
navy, were open to Poles and they availed themselves
of the opportunities, for the holding of a high official
position by a Pole in Austria was not made contin-
gent upon the renunciation on his part of his national
attachments as has been invariably the case in Russia
and Prussia. The Polish representation in the Aus-
trian Parliament has been considerable, as the popula-
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 541
tion of Galicia constitutes twenty-eight per cent, of
the total population of Austria, and the Polish Par-
liamentary Club frequently held the balance of power
between the various factions of the Austrian House
of Representatives. On many occasions this position
of the Club has been utilized to wrest from the Legis-
lature or from the Government concessions in favor
of Galicia and the development of her economic re-
sources by better railroad and canal facilities. Until
the outbreak of the present war the governors of
Galicia had invariably been appointed from among
the Poles. The powers of the Galician Diet, sitting
at Lemberg, the capital of the Province, have not been
as broad as the Galicians would have wished to have
them, and neither the Governor nor the Marshal, or
the Speaker, of the Diet have been directly responsible
before that body or removable by it, yet it has been
able to express the will of the people in all matters
pertaining to the collective life of the Province.
There has been, however, a considerable dis-
turbing element in the peaceful evolution of Galicia
and that is the Ruthenian question.
The native population of the country
districts of Eastern Galicia is preponder-
ately Ruthenian. It consists almost entirely of farm-
ers or farm laborers. Only nine per cent, of the
population of Lemberg is Ruthenian and but a sprink-
ling of Ruthenians follow intellectual or business pur-
suits. That section of Ruthenia which constitutes
the eastern part of Galicia came under Polish in-
fluence in the opening centuries of the formation of
the Polish State and the upper strata of the people, as
well as the cities, have undergone complete poloniza-
tion; the lower classes, however, preserved their
language, although all of them speak Polish perfectly
well. Like the majority of the Ukrainians, the East
542 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Galician Ruthenians joined the Church Union in the
XVIth century. Not having been forced, like their
brethren in Russia, to abandon their faith they re-
mained Uniates or Greek Catholics. Their political
and social conceptions are the same as those of the
Polish peasantry and about twenty per cent, of the
Ruthenian population intermarries with the Poles.
Their folkways, however, and character are different
from those of the Poles. They are perhaps more
musically gifted and more easy going, but less ambi-
tious, less self-reliant and less thrifty than the Poles.
They lack historical tradition of a politically organ-
ized national state of their own as well as the higher
standards of culture and civilization to compete suc-
cessfully with their Polish neighbors. Because of
the existing social and property relations in Galicia,
the mind of a Ruthenian peasant invariably associates
the Pole with the master or landowner. This ac-
counts for the basic, purely economic source of any
ill feeling that may be found in the heart of a Ruthe-
nian in relation to a Pole. This state of mind, en-
gendered by the resentment usually felt by an
economic inferior to his superior, has been taken ad-
vantage of for political reasons, first by the Austrian
government and then by the agents of Russia. When
the Bismarckian crusade began and the Polish depu-
ties denounced it in the Austrian parliament and de-
manded remonstrance against the Prussian outrages,
the German government, likewise took recourse to
the Ruthenians and began to assist them in order to
reduce Polish influence at Vienna. Several years
ago, at the time of the renewal of the treaty between
Austria and Germany the Galician Poles vigorously
opposed the alliance and in the course of this cam-
paign the insidious work of the Prussian government
was exposed in the famous Krysiak case that stirred
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 543
the whole of Poland. The documents purloined from
the office of the Colonization Commission laid bare
before the world the shameless German dealings with
the Ruthenians calculated to injure the Poles of
Galicia.
The truly national Ruthenian movement, making
its demands for an independent sovereign state,began
in the sixties of the past century. It became well de-
fined only in the eighties. As yet it can hardly claim
to have reached any other than the Austrian Ru-
thenes, because Russia has stifled every expression
of it in Ukraine. In Galicia the majority of the
Ruthenians stand on the ground of loyalty to Austria
and only a small faction hopes for the union of all
Ukrainians in the Orthodox faith and under Russian
protection. For obvious reasons the last named fac-
tion has had the support of the Russian government
although Russia has been extremely hostile to the
dreams of Ukrainian independence and equally antago-
nistic toward the plans for a formation of an autono-
mous Ruthenian state in a possible federation of nation-
alities making up the Hapsburg Empire. The National
Democrats, the Chauvinist element of Poland, small
but noisy, like jingoes everywhere, have similarly
deprecated the nationalist Ruthenian movement and
have given the false impression that Poland was oppos-
ing the free play of Ruthenian national life. All sorts
of preposterous charges have been made by Ruthenian
political leaders against the Poles and yet upon a
close analysis any unbiased scrutiny will reveal no
real discrimination on the part of the Poles against
the Ruthenians of Galicia. They have enjoyed the
same suffrage rights and as much freedom in the
political life of the country as the Poles; they have
their own schools, supported out of the general tax
proceeds, where the language of instruction is Ru-
544 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
thenian. Moreover, all children in the Polish public
schools of East Galicia are compelled to learn the
Ruthenian tongue. The Ruthenian language has
equal standing with the Polish in the Provincial Diet
and the Marshal in his opening speech adresses the
Chamber in both languages. The deputies are privi-
leged to speak either Polish or Ruthenian. Similarly
in all branches of provincial administration in East
Galicia as well as in the courts, Ruthenian is on par
with Polish. The Ruthenians have more parishes
than the Poles and their parishes are better equipped,
for it has always been the Polish policy to foster the
Greek Catholic Church in order to make the induce-
ments of the Russian Orthodox Church less attract-
ive. No doubt there have been instances where politi-
cal gerrymander was practiced in Eastern Galicia or
election frauds perpetrated by unscrupulous party
organizations. Likewise, public officials of lower
rank have at times used their power against the Ru-
thenians, but a dispassionate student will find that
no bona fide charge can be brought against the large
body of Polish citizenry in Galicia or against the
government of the Province. Similar gerrymander
or petty election frauds have been practiced elsewhere
to defeat rival political parties and they were as fre-
quent in West as in East Galicia. The politicians of
the reactionary camp have been active in preventing
the peasants and workingmen from asserting them-
selves politically and to achieve their aims they em-
ployed insidious methods against the Polish demo-
cratic -elements as well as against the Ruthenians.
These acts of political unfairness cannot be regarded
as arising from racial animosity. Seldom, if ever,
was there any discrimination against the Ruthenians
on the score of racial or religious affiliations, but when
the Ruthenes become so unreasonably aggressive as to
UPRISING OF 1863 AND ERA OF POSITIVISM 545
demand from the Poles the giving up of some of the
very few mainstays of culture they themselves possess
instead of sharing them jointly, they meet with a
justifiable rebuff. In recent years Lemberg wit-
nessed a student disturbance over the demand for
"utraquisation" or the making of the two languages
official languages of instruction, thus doubling the
number of chairs and introducing confusion at the
University. The Ruthenians already had a few
chairs where instruction was in Ruthenian. The
Poles naturally refused this utterly unreasonable
demand and suggested that the Ruthenians establish
a separate university of their own. This can hardly
be interpreted as an act of unfairness or hostility to
the Ruthenian people and yet they seemed to regard
it as such. The Poles well realize that the national
Ruthenian movement has taken a firm root, they
respect it as .long as its manifestations do not overstep
the bounds of civilized political struggle and are ready
to meet the reasonable demands of the Ruthenians.
After the re-establishment of Poland's independence
that will undoubtedly follow the present war, a satis-
factory modus vivendi will be found for the two na-
tionalities in Galicia, that will be based on justice and
mutual good will.
The Russo-
Japanese War
and the Politi-
cal Awakening
of Russia
FIG. 225 A GENERAL VIEW OF WILNO
CHAPTER XX
Constitutional Russia and the Poles
The year 1905 is a milestone in the political his-
tory of Poland, just as it constitutes the beginning of
a new era in the political life of Russia.
The repeated defeats of the Russian
autocracy in the war with Japan paved
the way for the new order of things.
The new era was ushered in by a series
of assassinations, in the course of which the Grand
Duke Sergius and the omnipotent Plehve fell; after
numerous revolutionary outbreaks in the various
parts of the Russian Empire; and after a general
strike of a magnitude never before known in the his-
tory of the world. It was this strike, which had held
a whole Empire in its deadly grip for weeks, that
finally brought the proclamation of the constitution
by Tsar Nicholas II on October 30, 1905. This
historic imperial proclamation established a parlia-
ment, known as the Duma, and guaranteed certain
civic liberties to the peoples of the vast domains of
the Empire. As is well known, many of these liber-
ties granted under duress were revoked as soon as
the bureaucracy was able to gather itself up and to
muster its forces. The Duma was stripped of its
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES 547
original powers, suffrage limited and so manipulated
as to assure a majority to those elements who re-
garded the constitutional regime as prejudicial to the
interests of Russia.
The period immediately preceding the proclama-
tion of the Constitution as well as the so-called con-
stitutional era saw an awakening of political life and
patriotism in Poland, and the mounting of hopes, so
soon to be dispelled by painful disillusion. The politi-
cal ferment which the Russian reverses in the Far
East had caused in the whole Empire had its first ex-
pression in a manifestation organized by the Polish
Socialist Party at Warsaw on November 14, 1904.
The manifestation inaugurated an endless series of
uprisings which spread like wildfire through the wide
^domains of the Tsar. In January, 1905, the demon-
||strative. workmen's procession to the Imperial Palace
in St. Petersburg, headed by the ill-famed priest
Gapon, took place and the bloody reception it received
but added oil to the conflagration. Strikes in cities
and in country districts were ceaseless and violent.
The Government was bombarded with memorials and
demands from various national, political, civic, indus-
trial, agrarian and scientific bodies. University stu-
dents struck and a great many of the professors
endorsed their action and demands. The University
of St. Vladimir in Kieff was the first to strike. When
the despatch to the effect that "Vladimir is sick"
reached the student leaders at Warsaw a mass meet-
ing was called at the University and amidst great en-
thusiasm the resolution to boycott the University, its
regime and policy was adopted. Demands were
made for a Polish University with Polish professors
and instruction in Polish. The Russian matriculates
expressed their sympathy with the demands of the
Polish students and joined in the strike. The students
548 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of the Warsaw Polytechnical School, the Veterinary
College and of the Institute of Agronomy and Fores-
try at Pulawy immediately followed suit and made
similar demands. The boys and girls of all the
primary and secondary schools joined in the boycott
of the prevailing educational regime. The unflinch-
ing perseverance of the youth and the support given
to them by their parents were truly remarkable and
touching. For the poorer boys who could not be sent
abroad to be educated in Galicia or in the West of
Europe, the strike, which lasted practically until the
beginning of the present war, often meant the cur-
tailment of careers. When the Government finally
consented to legalize private Polish colleges many
thousands of boys entered these institutions, although
many parents could ill afford to pay the rather high*
tuition fees which, of necessity, were charged by the
schools, and in spite of the fact that these private
schools gave none of the privileges to which the
graduates of the government schools were entitled.
The boys of the private schools had no privileges
while serving in the army and their diplomas did not
unlock for them the doors of the universities, except
those of Galicia. Tt was only after a number of years
that the Swiss and other European universities began
to recognize the diplomas of the Polish schools, but
the Russian authorities never consented to do so. The
only other act of the Government prior to the procla-
mation of the constitution which was of benefit to
Poland was the Edict of Tolerance, promulgated by
the Tsar on April 30, 1905. Within a short time after
its issuance two hundred odd thousand Uniates of the
border territories of Poland, who had been forced to
accept the Greek Orthodox rites and to be Russians,
joined the Church of Rome and became officially
Poles once more. Several months previous to that
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES 549
the Government restored to the Lithuanians the right
to use Latin characters, of which they had been de-
prived for several decades. This was all the govern-
ment did for the Poles although several imperial
rescripts had been issued carrying promises of re-
forms none of which has ever been inaugurated. The
trifling concessions above mentioned could not satisfy
the Polish demands and, as a result, the portentous
rumble. of the political volcano continued, becoming
constantly aggravated by powerful ejections of revo-
lutionary lava directed by the Fighting Squad of the
Polish Socialist Party.
When the news of the proclamation of the Con-
stitution reached Poland it was received with elation
by the country. Even those who had
T r e Se ^ ent . y been pessimistic about the Russian- au-
of the Russian , . .c -n i j
Ru i e tocracy ever doing anything tor Poland
entertained the confident hope that
matters would assume a different aspect when the will
of the Russian people made itself known and felt.
They soon painfully convinced themselves that the
Government under the constitution was as irrespon-
sible and its acts as wanton as before, that the con-
stitution was a decoy and that the Russian people
would have little opportunity to transmute its will
into action, and even if it could have done this, the
results would have been far from what the Poles had
anticipated. In short, the constitutional era of Rus-
sia had but tragic disillusionment and sordid reality
for Poland. Three days after the proclamation of the
constitution, Russian troops fired at the people in the
streets of Warsaw when they gathered, in holiday
raiment, with their womenfolk and children, with
banners and crosses, to rejoice over the dawn of a new
life. On the Theatre Square twenty-six innocent
persons were killed and seventy wounded on the day
550 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
of the celebration, and a few days later the whole of
Russian Poland was under martial law. This was
the first gift the Poles received from constitutional
Russia. The official reason given for this extraordi-
nary procedure was that "the Polish political leaders
revealed the impudent desire to tear Poland from
Russia/' Nine days later, on November 19, the reason
was declared to lie in "the fact that the idea of Polish
autonomy has taken hold of all the classes of the
Polish population and of all political parties." On
December 1, 1905, martial law was recalled by an
ukase of the Tsar because "complete quiet already
prevailed," and yet in spite of the ukase, the Governor-
General restored martial law on December 21st on the
ground that rumors were abroad about impending
revolutionary outbreaks. All these rumors were pur-
posely created to deprive Poland of the fruits of the
constitutional regime. The established martial order
which lasted for several years, gave to the governors
full opportunity to deal with the population as they
pleased and accordingly, during the month of Janu-
ary, 1906, seventeen persons were executed without
any trial in Warsaw and Lublin alone. The jails
became overcrowded with persons who had nothing
to do with politics but attempted to make use of some
of the guaranteed constitutional liberties. By sheer
administrative wilfulness the government officials
ordered the arrest of peasants and landlords by the
hundreds because they invoked their constitutional
right and employed the Polish language at the legal
communal meetings. Failure to pay taxes promptly
on specified dates was made occasion for the imposi-
tion of huge fines, and the payments were exacted by
means of military dragoonades, accompanied by in-
credible atrocities and outrages. This state of affairs
lasted for almost three years, rendering the constitu-
tional era in Poland the most cursed period of Russian
slavery, just as it was the blackest and bloodiest
chapter in the life of. the Jews in Russia. The pog-
roms organized by the Government had never been
so numerous and effective and cruel as they were in
constitutional times and the Government attempted
to introduce them into Poland. Thanks, however, to
the intelligence and high moral sense of the native
population, all attempts failed, although one was
started by the Russian soldiery in Siedlce and the
provocation agents were busy in rousing the street
rabble of the town, but did not succeed.
The concessions which the government made
during the unsettled revolutionary days allowed the
foundation of schools and the organiza-
The Suppres- tion of educational and cultural societies.
EducattoiS* An association known as the Polish
Activities School Mother was formed which had
an enrollment of hundreds of thousands.
Numerous libraries were founded, courses for illiter-
ates established throughout the country and agricul-
tural clubs and trade unions organized. All these insti-
tutions were gradually suppressed by the Government
during the constitutional era. The trade unions were
suspected of socialism; the Society for the Distribu-
tion of Scholarships was charged with subsidizing
Polish schools and w r as disbanded; and the gymnastic
societies were closed as early as September 4, 1906.
In 1909 the government closed the Catholic Union
which maintained a number of day nurseries, libraries
and schools, and carried on lecture work and other
similar activities through its three hundred and sixty
branches.
Following the course of events of the last one
hundred years in Poland, the reader might have
observed that it has been characteristic of the Polish
552 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
people that whenever they had a chance to govern
themselves without foreign intervention they have
thrown most of their energies into the development
of education. So it was during this transition period.
The above mentioned organization, known as the
"Polish School Mother" came into existence almost
spontaneously and in a short time maintained an
enormous number of primary schools and libraries
throughout the country in spite of the difficulties put
in its way by the government, which demanded the
redtape legalization of every school and of every
teacher connected with it. The work of the organiza-
tion was purely educational, and yet it became the
target of attacks on the part of the Russians. The
officials of the County of Ghelm, in the Province of
Lublin, were first to petition the government to close
the Polish schools of that section as they "create a
ferment and endanger the existence of State schools."
The "Union of True Russians" of Warsaw seconded
the petition and went so far as to request the closing
of all of the schools of the "Polish Mother." Under
the influence of these requests the Russian Govern-
ment began to make the work of the schools more
difficult. In one instance at a meeting of the dele-
gates of the Society a prominent Pole from Posen
spoke. For the offense of allowing a "foreigner" to
speak at the meeting the government imposed upon
the society a fine of three thousand roubles, and a
month or so afterward, on December 14, 1907, the
organization was dissolved upon order of the Rus-
sian authorities. At the time of the closing of the
schools there were sixty-three thousand children
attending the grammar classes and twenty-four hun-
dred in the kindergarten. In addition to the large
amount of real estate owned by the Society and the
school buildings, it had a fund of eight hundred and
ten thousand roubles. To those who know what drafts
have constantly been made on the Poles in addition to
the heavy government taxes which they have had to
pay, the financial showing of the institution and the
success of its work must appear truly remarkable. The
organization of any other association with a similar
educational object was forbidden, because the gov-
ernment entertained the "moral conviction" that any
new society would be but a continuation of the old.
All other educational institutions such as the People's
University, the courses for illiterates, the Library
Association and the Society for Polish Culture were
likewise doomed and one after another had to suspend
their useful work. The regulations concerning Polish
colleges which were sanctioned by the Government
in 1905 during the school strike, grew more restrict-
ive. In 1908 the Government decided to reopen the
University and the Polytechnical School, which had
been boycotted by the Polish youth because of their
Russian character. In order to stimulate enrollment
the Government lowered the requirements for en-
trance and a large number of Russian graduates of
the inferior Greek Orthodox religious seminaries
began to arrive to register at the Warsaw University.
With a few exceptions, no Poles matriculated in either
the University or the Polytechnical School. The
filling up of the University with a low grade of Rus-
sian students led to several hostile demonstrations on
the part of the boys of the private Polish colleges, and
the Government took this occasion as a pretext for
closing sixteen of the colleges with an enrollment of
six thousand students, and the threat was made that
should such a hostile demonstration be repeated, all
the other Polish schools would meet with a similar
end.
554 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
In spite of the fact that the first Duma was,
in its majority, composed of representatives of the
liberal and radical elements of the Rus-
The _ Attitude s j an people, its declarations failed to
Toward dre* mention Poland or to assert any clear-
Poles cut intentions concerning it. The
speech from the throne totally ignored
Poland and was addressed exclusively to the Russian
people. Similarly, the oath which the Polish deputies
had to sign was to the effect that they would labor
for the benefit of Russia alone.
The attitude of the second Duma toward the
Polish question was even less sympathetic than that
of the first. It went out of existence without having
formulated any definite policy with reference to Po-
land, and the imperial manifesto dissolving the second
Duma contained ill forebodings for the future. It
clearly stated that the Russian Duma should, in its
spirit, be wholly Russian and that "other nationalities
composing the Empire should have in the Duma rep-
resentation of their needs, but they should not and
will not have a representation large enough to afford
them the possibility of deciding questions purely Rus-
sian." It must be added that the Polish representa-
tives in the first two Dumas, without exception ex-
hibited staunch loyalty to the Government and voted
in favor of the Government budget for the army.
After the dissolution of the first Duma they took no
part in the famous protest of the deputies, which
was formulated at their specially called meeting in
Finland. And yet in accordance with the will of the
sovereign the number of Polish deputies from Poland
was cut down from thirty-six to twelve, while from
the provinces of Wilno and Kovno a representation
of at least three Russian deputies was made manda-
tory. In Lithuania and Polish Ruthenia separate
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES 555
electoral colleges were established on the basis of na-
tionality, thus assuring representation to the Russian
minorities. In this way the total number of Polish
deputies in the Third Duma numbered but eighteen,
eleven of whom were from Poland proper and the
remainder from the border territories. In order to
forestall any criticism of this arbitrary act of the
Government, the Governor-General of Poland issued
a warning "that the publication of any articles or
news inimical to the Government would be punishable
by three months imprisonment or a fine of three
thousand roubles." In protest against this depriva-
tion of an adequate representation all the parties of
Poland, except the National Democrats, boycotted
the new elections.
The Third Duma, composed of a majority of con-
servatives and reactionaries, concerned itself with the
Polish question in a most inimical fashion. Taking
advantage of the fact that there lived in Chelm, or
Kholm as the Russians call it, and its vicinity a con-
siderable number of people of Greek Orthodox faith,
most of them of Uniate antecedents, the Duma re-
solved to protect them against Polish influence and ac-
cordingly voted to cut off parts of the Provinces of
Lublin and Siedlce and to form a separate Province of
Chelm. In 1912 this new Province was created. The
population -of the new province at the time of its estab-
lishment, consisted of four hundred and sixty-seven
thousand Roman Catholics and two hundred and
seventy-eight thousand followers of the Greek Ortho-
dox Church. In spite of the fact that the new prov-
ince had a preponderance of the Polish element the
law establishing it provided that no Poles or Cath-
olics could buy land outside of city limits; that no
Poles from other parts of Poland could settle in it;
and that no Poles could hold any official position, no
556 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
matter how trivial. The Code Napoleon was sup-
planted by the Russian civil law which did not
recognize civic equality. The system of communal
self-government and other Polish institutions were
abolished and supplanted by those of Russia. None
of the other draconian Russian laws has so severely
hurt the national consciousness of the Poles as this
further diminution of Polish territory whose integrity
was guaranteed by the treaty of the Congress of
Vienna. It was a flagrant violation of an act guar-
anteed by the Powers of Europe and yet not a single
voice of protest was raised by any of the governments.
. After many years of deliberation over the intro-
duction of a system of municipal self-government in
Poland, Premier Stolypin finally presented a draft of
a proposal to the Third Duma. The bill was pure
mockery. It gave extraordinary representation to the
scattered Russians living in Poland and made the will
of the government officials superior to the enactments
of the city boards. It is not worth while to go into
the details of that document. It is important, how-
ever, to record the fact that when it came before the
representatives of the Russian nation assembled in
the Duma, it was considered too polonophile and was
amended in such a way as to become a veritable cari-
cature. They provided, for instance, that the gov-
ernor of a province shall have a right to suspend the
enactments of city councils not only on the ground
of their illegality, but also when, in his opinion, "they
shall be contrary to the interests of the State." No
more latitude could be given to administrative law-
lessness. They also struck out the provision which
allowed a limited use of the Polish language in meet-
ings and in official papers. The Polish language
could be used in certain documents and only as a
supplement to the Russian text. When this project
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES 557
came up for approval in the Council of the State it
was further emasculated and the provision allowing
the use of the Polish language was entirely eliminated.
Another severe blow was dealt to Poland by the
representatives of constitutional Russia in the enact-
ment by which the Warsaw-Vienna Railroad was
taken over by the Government. The Duma, which was
usually very slow in the transaction of business, acted
with remarkable celerity in buying out this important
Polish highway of commerce. Soon after the taking
over of the railroad on the 14th day of January, 1912,
the government proceeded to discharge the Polish
employees. Not only were the heads of the depart-
ments and the engineers, firemen, conductors, switch-
men and office clerks discharged, but even porters and
sweepers were replaced by Russians. Over fourteen
thousand families were thus deprived of a means of
livelihood at a single stroke. It would be a long
story to relate the many iniquities perpetrated
upon the Poles by the representatives of the Rus-
sian people, of whom so much was expected in the
pre-constitutional days, as contrasted with the Rus-
sian Government. In certain instances even the .
progressive and radical members of the Duma
joined hands with the representatives of the Black
Hundred when Polish matters were concerned. The
Poles had the painful opportunity to learn that the
Russian Duma and the Russian Government were
much alike in their attitude toward Poland.
The Polish representation in the Russian Duma,
with several exceptions, consisted exclusively of
members of the National Democratic
Polish Repre- p arty which, as has been stated in the
sentation in / ' . ~. , , ,
the Duma previous chapter, was an offshoot of the
Polish National League. Because of
greater political experience gained through their con-
558 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
nection with the National League from which they
seceded and because the progressive elements in Po-
land could not work openly in the face of government
restrictions and finally boycotted the spurious parlia-
mentary elections, the National Democrats were able
to carry most of the districts and became the
official representatives of Poland in the Duma. The
character of their political doctrine foretold their
activities, but their comport and ineptitude were both
humiliating and disappointing. They lacked man-
hood and daring to protest sincetly and effectively
against the Russian iniquities, and courage and ability
to carry through anything of benefit for their country.
The considerable following which the National Demo-
crats had in the first decade of the constitutional era
is but an indication of the extent of disorganization
in Polish life and of the degree of disorientation
among the people who were deprived of all semblance
of open political life for several generations. It is
also a testimonial to the efficiency of the organization
of the Party which was not at all sensitive as to
the means it employed to achieve its ends. Even
physical force and intimidation were resorted to
not infrequently. The distasteful methods and be-
havior of the National Democrats coupled with their
complete failure to accomplish anything at St. Peters-
burg were bound to call forth a strong wave of
reaction against them in spite of the protection which
was afforded to the Party by the Government as
against their opponents and in spite of demagogue-like
tactics skillfully adopted by the leaders. When, in
1908, Mr. Dmowski and his associates took part in the
Pan-Slav Congress at Prague contrary to the age-old
traditions and wishes of the Polish nation, a great
many of his former supporters left him, individually
or collectively like the National Workmen's union.
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES 559
V
This schism in the ranks caused his personal downfall
at the following elections and led to the gradual de-
cline of the National Democratic Party which
shriveled to naught during the present war.
In summing up it may be said without exaggera-
tion that no influence in the whole course of modern
Polish history has been more harmful to Poland than
that of the National Democrats. They have demoral-
ized Polish political life, dragged politics into the
mire of personal ambitions and petty racial animosi-
ties. By siding with the Russian Government in its
persecution of the national aspirations of the Ukrain-
ians they have contributed much toward the deep-
ening of ill-feeling between the Ruthenians and the
Poles in Galicia, and by their exploitation of anti-
Semitism for political purposes, they have branded
the Polish people with the stigma of religious in-
tolerance. The Polish nation, which was singularly
free from this charge, has been presented to the world
in recent years as a Jew-hater. It is important that
the world should know what elements were respon-
sible for the anti-Jewish orgy which had taken hold
of certain classes of the Polish population in the years
immediately preceding the present war.
The Jews constitute one-seventh of the popula-
tion of Poland. For various reasons, but primarily be-
cause of the fact that for almost a century
fL t "'
Jewish Poland had no government of its_ojvn,
Problem tne forge mass of the Jewish popula- ? -.
tion has nol Been assimilated. The '
bulk of the Jewish people lives in cities. In some fa
of the smaller towns the proportion of Jews is ?
much larger than that of the Gentiles. Over thirty
per cent, of the inhabitants of the City of Warsaw is
Jewish. In the larger cities where they constitute a
minority the Jews are usually clustered together and
560 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
preserve the spirit of the old ghetto. The majority
of them live in penury, squalor and ignorance. The
occupations of a great many of the Polish Jews are
chiefly of a commercial nature. They act as agents,
merchants, salesmen, shop keepers, hawkers, money
lenders. A considerable part, however, is engaged as
artisans and in domestic industry. In their habits
of life they cling to mediaeval modes and dress in long
black robes. The stigma of a distinctive dress, which
was thrust upon them centuries ago in many of the
countries of Europe has been accepted as a mark of
their racial attachment and those from among the
Jews who divest themselves of it are considered by
their co-religionists as renegades. Their standards
of life are low and backwardness so strongly in-
trenched that it will probably take many generations
of most enlightened policy to force this citadel of
mediaevalism. Through historic evolution^the Jews
in Poland have become, in a degree, monopolists of
commerce and banking. There are certain branches
of business, like marketing of grain and lumber, for
example, which they have almost entirely to them-
selves and owing to race solidarity and efficient busi-
ness organization they can beat off any undesirable
newcomer. In relation to their Gentile neighbors, on
the whole the Jews entertain no ill-feeling but do not
identify themselves with the Polish nation, although
there is a natural strong sentiment for Polish life and
traditions. When the Jews leave their ghetto and
become educated and associate with the Poles* this
unconscious sentiment, which is latent in the Polish
Jewry, sprouts into Polish patriotism, as has been
demonstrated on many occasions in the course of
history. During John Sobieski's time the famous
defender of the fortress of Trembowla, Captain
Chrzanowski was of Jewish antecedents. In
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES 561
Kosciuszko's time Berek Joselowicz organized a Jew-
ish regiment. During the war of 1831 and the insur-
rection of 1863 the Jews were active in the defense of
their country. Mr. Wohl, the treasurer of the Revolu-
tionary Government in 1863, was a Jew. During
the patriotic procession which took place in Warsaw
in 1862, when the cross fell from the hands of a priest
who was killed by a Russian charge, a Jewish lad
picked it up and, raising it high above his head, led
the procession to the church. Jews, like the bankers
Baron Kronenberg and Jean de Bloch of Warsaw,
contributed materially toward the economic upbuild-
ing of the country, and a number among the Polish
historians, scientists and publicists, like the well
known Julian Klaczko, Leopold Meyet, Prof. Joseph
Nusbaum, Prof. Simon Askenazy, Samuel Dick-
stein, Wilhelm Feldman, Alexander Kraushar, Prof.
Beck, Prof. Sternbach and many others are of Jewish
faith or blood. In the present war a number of Jewish
men have enlisted in the Polish Legions and have
fought valiantly. On the other hand, there have been
numerous instances, where the Polish Jews have
played an unenviable role in relation to their mother
country.
The attitude of the Poles to the Jews has seldom
been marked by any deep-rooted hatred. The Jews
have often been made the butt of humor, but have
seldom been the scapegoat in a serious outbreak of
animosity. Until the recent artificial arousing of anti-
Semitism in Poland by the National Democrats, there
was only one anti-Semitic periodical published in
Warsaw and that was edited by a Jewish apostate.
This weekly was patronized chiefly by backward vil-
lage priests and has died a natural death for want of
support. The Polish landlords and magnates, and
even the kings, almost invariably employed Jewish
>62
financial advisers, and in this way the Jews be-
came an important factor in the life of Poland.
Serving the interests of their masters, they inevitably
came into conflict with the masses of the people,
whom they exploited on behalf of their employers as
well as on their own, and in this way often earned the
dislike of the peasants. The laws since the early days
of Polish history, with the exception of the era of
decadence, have been tolerant to the Jews, as has been
pointed out in the various preceding chapters. Of
all the literatures of the world, Polish literature has
probably portrayed the Jew with the most sym-
pathetic feeling. How do the Eli Makover and
Meyer Ezofowicz of the Polish woman writer Eliza
Orzeszkowa or the cymbalist Jankiel, of Mickie-
wicz, compare with the Shylock of Shakespeare?
And these are but two in a long array of Polish
writers who have treated the Jew with utmost kind-
ness and affection. The Russian government, with
its policy of divide et impera, determined to break this
harmony between the Poles and the Jews and to
achieve that purpose has employed both the Russian
Jews and the Polish National Democrats. By a
policy of pogroms, persecutions and restrictions the
government forced hundreds of thousands of Rus-
sian and Lithuanian Jews, known as Litwaks, to
migrate to Poland, where they were given special
protection against the Poles. The Litwaks, because
of a keener cunning and because of their intimate
knowledge of Russian ways and Russian markets
became dangerous competitors of the native Jews
of Poland. In addition, because of their still lower
standards of life they were better prepared to
undermine the economic opportunities of the Polish
Jews. Though persecuted in Russia and subjected
to pogroms, the Russian Jews in Poland were un-
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES 563
conscious, and sometimes conscious, tools of Russi-
fication as in addition to their jargon they spoke
Russian and either could not, or would not, employ
the use of the Polish language. This was naturally
resented by the Poles who looked with apprehension
upon the enormous influx of a nationally and eco-
nomically undersirable element. A free nation can
exercise its soveregin power with reference to foreign
immigration; Poland, without a government of its
own, could do nothing to prevent this unwelcome
addition to its densely populated country. It should
be remembered that Poland is the second country in
Europe in point of density of population, Belgium
being the first. Even without immigration Poland
could hardly accommodate her native population and
for years there has been a large exodus of peasants
as well as of the Jewish city element. The infiltra-
tion of the Russian Jews helped to sweep out of the
country the native Jews, whose places were then
taken by the former, a people foreign in race as well
as in national sympathy. It became a problem of
great concern to the Poles. The National Democrats
decided to take advantage of the general uneasiness
engendered by this policy of the Russian government
and to exploit it in the interests of their party and
indirectly in the interest of Russia. They succeeded
thoroughly in their pernicious endeavor. At election
periods appeals were made to the lowest instincts of
the masses. The publication of a daily, replete with
vituperation and insinuations, under the name of
"A Gazette for Two Groschen" was begun in Warsaw
with the strong financial backing of a number of
well known anti-Semites. This publication did more
than any other single influence in tearing open
a large wound on the body politic of Poland. It alien-
ated two sections of the nation from each other and
564 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
widened the breach which separated them. It precipi-
tated an internal economic war under the form of a
boycott after the Jewish electors of Warsaw, who had
the majority of votes, refused to support a Polish can-
didate because he was not free from objections on
the ground of race hatred. Though able to elect a
Jew they threw their votes in favor of an obscure
social democrat and made him the representative of
Warsaw in the Fourth Duma, 1912. The election of
a Socialist fanned the fury of the chauvinists in spite
of the fact that it was in deference'to popular feeling
that the Jews refrained from electing a Jew and com-
promised on the Socialist of Roman Catholic faith.
The boycott was carried out in a most rigorous man-
ner and was extended not only to the merchants and
artisans but also to the Jews of all other occupations.
The "economic patriotism," as the boycott was
styled, had its beginning in the adverse attitude of
the Jews toward the co-operative consumers' asso-
ciations. Until 1905 the Russian Government had
forbidden the formation of such organizations. In
that year, however, the associations were legalized
and soon an immense chain of co-operative stores
was opened all over the country. The growth and
success of the enterprise were phenomenal. A central
purchasing agency was created and a co-operative
bank was established with a capita^ of many millions
of roubles. Naturally, the small shopkeepers were
hard hit and combated the movement vigorously.
As the vast majority of the merchants were Jews,
they attributed the foundation of the associations
to anti-Semitism. The National Democrats had
nothing whatever to do with this wholesome eco-
nomic activity, but decided to turn the Jewish inter-
pretation of it into political capital, and in the
furtherance of their scheme brought about a gen-
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES 565
eral boycott of the Jews. Sober minded publicists
repeatedly pointed out this erroneous basis of the
philosophy of the "economic patriots" who spoke of
the Jews as a separate nation. It is a wrong political
doctrine which regards the Jews of any country as a
distinct nationality, with interests of its own, foreign
or antagonistic to the country in which they live, and
any deductions based on such premises must needs
lead to destructive conclusions. There is but little
doubt that the anti-Semitic feeling aroused by the
National Democratic Party and precipitated by the
policy of the Russian Government will largely, if not
entirely, disappear when the Polish people become
free and unconstrained, and when the cultural and
educational standards of "both the Polish and the
Jewish masses have been raised to a higher level. An
indication as to what the Polish policy in that respect
will be is contained in an address made a while ago
by Professor Wladyslav Leopold Jaworski, then
President of the Supreme National Committee which
was the most important and representative political
organization that existed in Poland during the war
before the organization of the Provisional Govern-
ment. In the course of this address, in which he de-
precated anti-Semitism, he said:
"After Poland is freed from Russian rule and joins again
the family of West European nations, it must follow the ex-
ample of the civilized countries of the world in solving the
Jewish question ; it must grant to them equal rights of citizen-
ship and gain their sympathy and confidence. In return, it
must be emphatically demanded of the Jews that they become
devoted .citizens of their country ; that they work for its best
interests and development. We must give the Jews full access
to the sources of well-being and culture and then we will have
the right to demand of them that they be good and loyal citi-
zens of Poland, as they are good citizens of France, England,
Italy or Germany."
566 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
The misdirected efforts of certain Jews in fos-
tering Jewish nationalistic feelings and in agitating
for the creation of a sort of Jewish state in Poland
must meet with the most severe condemnation on the
part of the Poles, as they would on the part of any
other nation. The Jewish nationalists have done as
much to impede the proper solution of the Jewish
problem in Poland as have the Polish National Demo-
crats. The latter are politically bankrupt and will
probably not rally if after the close of the war Poland
should be an independent state. The Jewish na-
tionalists wil-1 similarly have to abandon their propa-
ganda if a proper understanding is to be reached.
The spread of false information in Europe and Amer-
ica about the alleged Polish atrocities committed
upon the Jews in the opening months of the war has
done great harm to Poland, and has helped only to
embitter the Polish nation, in the hour when it is
undergoing hard trials and is making a supreme
effort to regain its independent national exist-
ence. It has not served the cause of the Polish Jews.
Many prominent men among the Jews, like Dr.
Joseph Sare, the Vice-President of the City of Cra-
cow, Mr. Bernard Lauer,* a manufacturer of War-
saw, Mr. Herman Feldstein,** a banker of Lemberg,
and others have raised their protest not only against
the dissemination of fabricated slanderous tales but
also against the presumption of certain misguided
foreign Jews to speak in the name of the Polish
Jewry and to advise with reference to Polish-
Jewish affairs. They are fain to trust the matter
of adjustment to the Polish people and express
* Bernard Lauer, "Zum Polnisch-Judischen Problem, (vom Stand-
punkt eines polnischen Juden)." Preussische Jahrbiicher, Band 162,
Heft 2, Berlin, 1915.
** Herman Feldstein, "Polen und Juden, Ein Appell." Wien, Verlag
des Obersten Polnischen Nationalkomitees, May, 1915.
CONSTITUTIONAL RUSSIA AND THE POLES
567
the conviction that should Poland emerge from the
present cataclysm a free and independent state, the
Polish spirit may be relied upon to seek no vengeance
for the harm done and that the difficult Jewish prob-
lem will be settled in equity and justice. A pledge of
loyalty to the recently organized State Council of
Warsaw, tendered by the Polish Jewry and express-
ing fine sentiments of patriotism and devotion, is
another proof of the faith they entertain in the spirit
of the Polish nation and its state policies.
(Painting by J. StanislawskI)
FIG. 256 THE ROYAL CASTLE OF CRACOW
CHAPTER XXL
The Polish Question and the Great War
"The Polish question," said Napoleon," is the key
to the European vault," and on its proper solution
the future peace of Central Europe will
The Re-open- i arge ly depend.' The ideal solution lies
ing of the Po- fi i , j
lish Question m tne restoration to complete independ-
ence of the ancient Polish Republic and
in the establishment of a thoroughly democratic gov-
ernment which would be a true representation of the
needs of the various classes and elements of the peo-
ple. As the war continues the possibility of such a so-
lution grows greater and greater. While only three
years ago, with the exception of Galicia, Poland did
not possess as much as a limited city home-rule, she
now enjoys a considerable measure of state freedom in
the larger part of her domains and has her own gov-
ernment, diet and army. While only three years ago
the word "independence" could not be mentioned in
Poland with impunity, to-day both the Central
Powers and the Provisional Russian Government
have declared themselves unequivocally in favor of
independence. What has been the course of this
rapid evolution wrought by the war?
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 569
Although Poland had no part in precipitating the
gigantic world conflict which opened on the first day
of August, 1914, yet, by reason of her geographic posi-
tion, she became one of the greatest theatres of the
war where whole nations met in a terrible death
grapple. The country was devastated and plunged
into a sea of blood. Scores of cities and towns, thou-
FIG. 258 "CONFLAGRATION." FROM THE SERIES OF "WAR"
BY A. GROTTGER
sands of villages were ruined. Peaceful men and
women, happy homes, property and wealth were de-
stroyed. Hunger and disease wrought fearful ravage.
Starvation took its toll as tens of thousands
fell by the wayside. Millions fled their burning
homes and in hordes were driven eastward. The
roads were strewn with the whitening bones of the
570
fugitives. The younger children, their lives like the
flickering flame of a candle, easily extinguished by the
lightest wind, died by thousands daily, deprived of
proper food and care.
About two million Poles of military age were
drafted into the three foreign armies and lined up
on opposite sides of the battlefield brother against
brother. Once more the luckless country was laid
waste. This stupendous calamity was bound, how-
ever, to raise the Polish question which seemed buried
forever. The political thinkers and writers of the
past century foresaw that only a cataclysm like the
present one, in which the three powers that tore Po-
land asunder were arrayed on opposite sides, could
liberate the nation from its political bondage, and the
great seer Mickiewicz prayed for this to come to pass.
During the Balkan wars several years ago it looked
as if the world were on the brink of the mighty con-
flict. It was postponed for a short time, but its in-
evitableness had been fully realized in Poland since
the last imbroglio, and had been thoroughly discussed
in the Polish press and in the political literature uf
Galicia, the only part of Poland in which such a dis-
cussion could openly be pursued.
What should be the attitude of the Polish people
if the anticipated war should occur, was the
question which the Poles sought to
The Polish answer for themseives. And immedi-
MUita ^Pre- atdy ^ l the tragic difficulties f
paredness * the Polish situation became apparent,
complicated as they were by the differ-
ences in the political status of the three sections and
by the multiplicity of economic and social interests
and aspirations among the various classes of the peo-
ple. Those of the Prussian part of Poland, exasperated
by the inhuman treatment to which they have been
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 571
subjected, had but one desire : to be rid as soon as pos-
sible and forever of the Prussian curse. In Russian
Poland, likewise, it was the ardent desire of the people
to free themselves from Russian shackles, and the
vast majority hoped for a complete severance of all
the bonds uniting Poland with Russia.
There were some elements, however, who for
reasons of immediate political expediency did not go
so far in their open declarations. Some of the reac-
tionary landowners and industrialists favored auto-
cratic Russia, for only under such a government could
they safely enjoy their advantages and withstand
successfully the claims of democracy. Under the pro-
tection of the Russian soldiery they could freely ex-
ploit the masses and quash all disturbing strikes.
Others saw in the union with Russia' the only pos-
sibility for a great development of Polish industrial
life and prosperity, since Russia afforded an immense
market for the products of Poland. They argued
that some day conditions in Russia would change,
political life would become liberalized and Poland
would be granted autonomy.
These arguments of the so-called "Progressives"
were not sufficently convincing to the great major-
ity who did not propose to sell their birthright to
a free and independent national life for a mess of pot-
tage. Unhampered national existence, affording to
the people an opportunity to work out their own sal-
vation meant more to them than a greater number
of smokestacks in the cities or the piling up of im-
mense fortunes. They tolerated no compromise on
this point and argued that the fears of economic
ruin in case of a separation from Russia were un-
founded. In 1912 the representatives of all the inde-
pendence parties of the Kingdom of Poland and of
Galicia met and formed a Temporary Committee of
572 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the Confederated Independence Parties, known by
their Polish initials as K. S. S. N., charged with the
definite task of mapping out a detailed plan of pro-
cedure in case of a world war, and of making military
preparations for such a contingency.
It was the common agreement that in the event
of war between Russia and Austria, Poland was to
take an active part against Russia, even if hated
Germany should join Austria. It was argued that
it is impossible for Poland to remain inert or to
endeavor to fight two of her adversaries at the same
time. Because Russian oppression extended over
eighty per cent, of the ancient Polish Republic, and
because in case of a set-to between the Central Powers
and Russia the latter would be hopelessly beaten,
action against Russia was the only course indicated by
the dictates of sound reasoning and by all the past
experiences and traditions of the Polish nation. Rus-
sia's defeat, it was argued, would not only make pos-
sible the placing of the Polish Question on an interna-
tional footing, but would also place the Russian autoc-
racy and its henchmen in a precarious, if not unten-
able, position and lead to internal reforms in Russia.
Poland and humanity generally would then profit
doubly.
In reaching this decision as to the course to pur-
sue in case of a clash between the rival powers, the
Poles were not actuated by any motives of hate or
love toward one or the other. Without exception
the Poles entertain nothing but the most bitter feel-
ing toward the Prussians because of the brutal and
unjust treatment accorded by them to the Polish
people throughout history and because of the repul-
sive national characteristics of the Prussians, which
have alienated them from the friendship of every
other nation as well. It was, then, not sympathy with
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 573
Prussia or even Austria that led to the adoption of
the policy of a war with Russia, but a clearly visual-
ized opportunity to deal successfully with one of the
formidable despoilers of their national heritage and
a chance, such as might never occur again, of redeem-
ing the lost sovereignty over a major part of the
ancient Polish domains. It was a policy dictated by
the Polish raison d'etat and founded on an intimate
knowledge of political and military conditions. That
it was evidently based on sound premises, the events
during the course of the war have demonstrated.
Were it not for Poland's active and bold political
moves and the heroic deeds of the Legions, the act
of November 5, 1916, whereby the Central Powers
recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Po-
land, would not have been proclaimed ; and were it not
for that Act and the rapid organization of the Polish
State in the midst of the war, the Revolutionary Pro-
visional Government of Russia would presumably
hot have declared itself for complete Polish inde-
pendence. The new Russia has not declared the inde-
pendence of any of the other component nationalities
of the Russian Empire.
By siding with Austria, which did not hamper
Polish national life, Poland gained a natural ally not
only against Russia but against Germany as well. .
As one publicist expressed it "the alliance was
a sword against Russia and a shield against Ger-
many." The alliance was also of undoubted practical
value to both Austria and Hungary. A Polish state,
composed of Galicia and the territories wrested from
Russia during the war, and becoming a third member
of a federation on an equal footing with Austria and
Hungary, would be very desirable to them from every
point of view. Tt would be gratifying to the reigning
574 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
dynasty as long as that institution lasted, and it
would add prestige and strength to the federated
states by additional territory, men and wealth, and
would rectify the difficult, from a military point of
view, frontier conditions which existed between the
Central Empires and Russia prior to the war. It
would have been welcomed by the German Austrians
as it would have relieved them of the large Polish
representation from Galicia in the Viennese Parlia-
ment and it would have been gladly received by the
Hungarians, since the separation of Galicia would
have reduced Austria's relative strength with regard
to Hungary. Above all, it would have rendered futile
all German endeavors to draw into the Reichsbund
the autochthonously Germanic provinces of Austria
and by affording in the Polish State a buttress for the
Poles in Prussia it would inevitably have led to a fer-
ment in Prussia and to a change in her relation to
the Poles. The German government well understood
the situation arid did its level best to block the efforts
of the Polish statesmen. It regarded with disfavor
the Austrian consent to the formation of Polish Le-
gions and until the manifesto of November 5, 1916,
prohibited recruiting into the Legions in that part of
Poland which was under German occupancy.
Knowing well that in the grim realities of life
only the strong survive and that a nation which is un-
prepared to meej serious contingencies receives little
consideration no matter how rightful its course and
lofty its principles, thoughtful Poles did their utmost
to arouse the people that they might not be caught
unawares, and to devise opportunities for making
preparations. Here Galicia proved to be the
Polish Piedmont. It was in Galicia that military
preparedness began to be organized, at first secretly
and then openly. Numerous books and pamphlets
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 575
were published bearing on war questions and tech-
nique. Schools were started for training Polish offi-
cers to command the Polish army in "event of war
with Russia, and the organizers were in close touch
with the revolutionary societies of Russian Poland
and Lithuania.
FIG. 258 PROF. WLADYSL.AV L. JAWORSKI,
Statesman and Scholar
The bulk of the army was to be composed of Rus-
sian Poles who, it was reckoned, would be available at
the outbreak of a war on account of the
The Supreme anticipated hasty withdrawal of the
National Com- . r J
mittee Russian armies from Poland for well
known strategic reasons. This actually
occurred. Because, however, of Germany's decision
576 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
to throw the weight of her armies first to the west to
crush, republican France, Russia was able to come
back too early to make, possible a considerable con-
scription of the Russian Poles into the Legions
which came into official existence on August 16, 1914,
when the Supreme National Committee, the civic
counterpart of the Legions, was organized in Cracow
with Professor Wladyslaw Leopold Jaworski as
President and a membership of forty Galician depu-
ties to the Parliament at Vienna and the Provincial
Diet at Lemberg, representing all political parties.
Polish detachments took to the field before the
Legions were organized. Six days after the
declaration of war Joseph Pilsudski, a Lithuanian
Pole, following the command of the Revolutionary
National Government which was set up in Warsaw
on August 3rd, led his boys across the frontier and
established headquarters at Kielce in Russian Po-
land, where his small army was swelled to consider-
able proportions in a few days. There he issued a
manifesto which marks the beginning of the new era
for Poland. It was this deed and his army's baptism
of fire which forced the issue and caused the organiza-
tion of the Supreme National Committee and the
Legions, of which the Committee became the admin-
istrative body.
In their manifesto the Supreme National Com-
mittee said:
"In this hour of bloody transformation of Europe, we
may regain a great deal. But we must also sacrifice much.
For he will not win who but passively waits the end of the
game.
"In this hour the nation must prove that -it lives and
wants to live ; that it desires and knows how to retain the
place assigned to it by God and to defend it before the enemy.
"In order to transform the national Polish forces into
armed legions, the Polish Parliamentary Club and all political
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 577
parties without exception have unanimously resolved to form
one organization.
"Under Polish command and in close connection with the
chief direction of the Austro-Hungarian army, the Polish
Legions will enter the struggle in order that they may also
throw upon the scales of the greatest war a deed worthy of
the Polish nation, as a condition and beginning of a brighter
future."*
The representatives of the secret military organ-
izations of Russian Poland, of the People's Party and
of the Polish Socialist Party were present at the
(Painting by Julian Falat)
FIG. 259 A VIEW OF CRACOW
session and pledged their support and subordination
to the newly formed Supreme National Committee.
The Revolutionary National Government which was
organized at Warsaw three days after the declaration
of war and which issued a call to arms, similarly
submitted to the newly established authority and dis-
banded.
* Recueil de documents concernant la question polonaise, Aout,
1915, Switzerland, 1915, pp. 46-47.
578 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Meanwhile, on August 14th, Grand Duke Nicho-
las, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies,
realizing the importance of political dis-
orientation in Poland, issued his mani-
Nichoias festo, beautiful in style and fetching by
its sentiment, in which he promised the
unification of Poland in territory, language and
religion.
"Poles !
"The hour has struck when the dream of your fathers and
forefathers may be realized.
"A century and a half ago the living body of Poland was
rent asunder, but her soul has not perished. She has lived in
the hope that the time will come for the resurrection of the
Polish nation and its fraternal conciliation with great Russia.
"The Russian army brings you glad tidings of this union.
May the frontiers which have divided the Polish people be
broken down! May the Polish nation be united under the
sceptre of the Russian Emperor! Under this sceptre Poland
will be born anew, free in faith, in language and in self-gov-
ernment.
"One thing Russia expects of you : an equal consideration
for the rights of those nations with which history has linked
you.
"With open heart, with hand fraternally outstretched,
great Russia comes to you. She believes that the sword has
not rusted which overthrew the foe at Grunwald.
"From the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the Polar Sea
.the Russian war-hosts are in motion. The morning star of a
new life is rising for you.
"May there shine resplendent in the dawn the sign of the
Cross, the symbol of the Passion and Resurrection of nations."
The appeal served its purpose. The masses
in Russian Poland, deprived for decades of the
possibilities of free and thorough discussion of
their national problems and bullied by the National
Democrats, were led astray and received the
manifesto with almost puerile enthusiasm. It was
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 579
not, however, love of Russia or faith in Russian
promises, but hatred of Prussia which caused this out-
hurst. And then, it was reasoned, by turning against
Russia, the Poles would have been indirectly turning
against France and England, countries for which they
have always entertained but admiration and respect!
It was confidently expected that France and England
would soon issue guarantees of the Russian pledges.
The shock over the fate of brave Belgium and the
blunt official declaration of Germany that treaties
are "scraps of paper" helped to swing the pendulum.
Aside from emotional reasons, the friendly atti-
tude of a great number of Poles toward Russia
after the manifesto was caused also by the belief that
the Allies would soon overpower the Teutonic Em-
pires, and it would have been suicidal policy to league
with the vanquished, particularly when only hostile
feelings were entertained toward at least one of them.
This reasoning seemed to be particularly well
grounded after the Austrian defeats in the first
months of the war, when they had to retire almost
to the doors of Cracow. Hence the temporary mis-
understanding between the Poles of the two sections
of Poland. Many of the weaker characters among
the Galician Poles began to question the wisdom of
their original attachments. Several members of the
Supreme National Committee, large landowners of
East Galicia, whose estates began to fall into Russian
hands, experienced under the circumstances a com-
plete change of heart and caused the disbandment of
the Eastern Polish Legion whose headquarters were
originally at Lemberg. This, of course, led to their
withdrawal from the Committee. The National
Democrats of Galicia whose representatives at first
joined the Committee, similarly turned tippet when
the first untoward events came on and welcomed the
580 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
advent of the Russian troops. They had subsequently
to retire with the Russian armies in fear of trials for
high treason.
The Supreme National Committee bravely
weathered many fierce political tempests and
although severely criticized in some quarters it per-
formed its principal duties with unflinching devotion
and singleness of purpose. It rendered great service
FIG. 260 LEON BILINSKI,
President of the Polish Parliamentary Club, ex-flnance minister of Austria-
Hungary, statesman and scholar
to the cause of Poland. In order to unify the efforts
of the Committee with those of the Polish Parlia-
mentary Club, former minister Bilinski, as President
of the Parliamentary Club, became ex-officio Chair-
man of the Committee and remained in that post until
the dissolution of the Committee in 1917 when the
entire direction of the Polish policy was taken over
by the Provisional Council of State.
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 581
In spite of hard adversities the Polish Legions
have remained true to their ideals and have fought
with proverbial gallantry. By their
P? C i ro 1 wt , h deeds they have gained the complete
of the Polish ,, , J . .
Legions confidence ot the Austrian government
which at first was somewhat dilatory
and suspicious, placing many difficulties in the way
of their provisioning and equipment. The enthusi-
asm and readiness for infinite sacrifices on the part
of Galicia for the support of the Polish army com-
posed chiefly of Russian Poles, has been truly re-
markable and fully convincing as to the earnestness
of the country and the intensity of hopes placed in
the Legions. Old men and young boys, peasants and
university students, workmen and artists, flocked by
tens of thousands to the banners to fight for the liber-
ation of their country and to uphold the glorious
martial traditions of the nation. Foremost writers,
like Sieroszewski, Strug, Rydel, Danilowski and Zul-
awski, painters like Aydukiewicz, a man of over sixty,
actors, sculptors, university professors, priests, men
in all walks of life and of all ages joined the Legions.
Describing the devotion and enthusiasm of the
people in fitting out the Legions, Count Louis Mor-
stin says :
"The offerings made were truly touching ; they demon-
strated to what degree of patriotism a people for a century
vainly aspiring to liberty, is able to rise. Domestic servants
and laborers gave all their savings, boys in the primary schools
and old people living in almshouses offered the few cents they
managed to spare with great difficulty ; a blind man who
earned his living by playing a violin in the streets came to do-
nate his single treasure the instrument by which he earned
his daily bread. Gold rings poured into the treasury in such
numbers that one could soon find no married couple wearing
this emblem of wedlock; it was considered a shame not to
have offered them to the military treasury. The ladies of the
582 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
FIG. 261 WACLAW SIEROSZEWSKI,
famous novelist, as officer of the Polish Legions
THE- POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 583
higher classes spent whole nights sewing underwear for the
soldiers and worked like common factory girls. The peasants
of the .vicinity of Cracow alone raised four hundred thousand
crowns. The whole nation became an immense workshop, a
source of inexhaustible generosity ; one thought and one desire
animated all minds : the Polish army.
"When one realizes the immense difficulties connected with
the creation of an army, even among nations possessing un-
limited resources, he can easily comprehend the enthusiasm
and pride of a nation which could, amidst conditions so diffi-
cult and within a span of time so short, equip and send to the
firing line detachments of troops which were capable of with-
standing all the rigors of modern warfare." *
Among the most active workers on behalf of the
Legions was the venerable Bishop Wladyslav Ban-
durski of Lemberg, an ardent patriot, whose unbound-
ed devotion, eloquence and enthusiasm have been a
source of constant inspiration. Within a few months,
despite the two million Poles drafted into the armies
of Austria, Germany and Russia, a Polish army tens
of thousands strong, equipped by the nation and com-
manded in the Polish language by Polish officers,
sprang into existence.
In response to a threat issued by the Generalis-
simo of the Russian army on August 30, 1914, that
the Polish volunteers when captured would not be
treated like ordinary war prisoners, and after several
were hanged by the Russians, the Austro-Hungarian
government on October 2, 1914, addressed a note to
the neutral countries of the world in which it offi-
cially recognized the Polish Legions as a regular army
and as a combatant to whom the ordinary rules of
warfare apply in accordance with established prac-
tices and conventions. This note gave international
status to the Legions. It must be stated in this con-
* "La Legion Polonaise" Berne: Ferd. Wyss, 1916, pp. 15-16.
584 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
nection that according to the understanding reached
between the Supreme National Committee and the
Austro-Htmgarian government the Polish Legions
FIG. 262 BISHOP WLADYSLAV BANDURSKI,
ardent patriot and spiritual leader of Poland
could not be and never were employed against any of
the belligerents except Russia. In this way the Poles
strove to emphasize that they were not at war with
any other country except that of the Tsar, just as the
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 585
army of Prince Joseph Poniatowski, fighting beside
the Grande Armee of Napoleon was formed against
Russia and not against England, Russia's ally of a
century ago.
From the point of view of their organizers, the
Polish Legions were a guarantee that the Polish
Question would come up for solution
The intema- a f- ^ e p e ace Congress which will follow
tionai status th c i osmg o f t h e present hostilities, and
of the Polish . 9., ; *T * A ^.1
Question tnat !t wl " not ^e left to the internal
settlement of any of the three parti-
tioning states. This was the chief motive in creating
the Polish army. By its existence the Poles wanted to
emphasize that they are a distinct national entity
with a will to live and to shape freely its own des-
tinies. They well realized that the small national
Polish army could not influence the destinies of the
Great War one way or another, but they reckoned
that the fact of its existence would neutralize the
efforts of their enemies for an internal post-bellum
settlement of the Polish Question. -From the very out-
set official and non-official Russia has made it clear
that it. proposes to deal with the problem as one of
purely internal concern, a position precisely contrary
to the uniform wishes of the Polish nation. Discussing
editorially this desire of the Poles, the Russian jour-
nal "Utro Rossey" said on January 1, 1915 :
"It was the commander-in-chief of the Russian armies
who issued the manifesto to the Poles. It was neither Gen-
eral Joffre nor General French. Neither France nor England
has a decisive voice in the purely Slavonic family question.
The future councils of the victorious allies will affirm the act
of unification of Poland. But no "congresses" have a right
to concern themselves with the organization of Poland united
under the sceptre of the Russian tsar."
586 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Similar in substance have been all the other Rus-
sian utterances. In an interview at Rome Professor
Milyukoff, the leader of the Constitutional Demo-
crats, said:
"To-day my party is drafting a plan for Poland similar to
that adopted by Britain for Ireland before the war. The Poles
will be forced to serve in the army and will send deputies to
the Duma but they will be granted a large measure of local
self-government." *
The hopes of the Poles who counted on the active
and forceful intervention of France and England
have been shattered by the various discouraging pro-
nouncements of eminent Frenchmen and English-
men. The greatest blow, however, came on January
12, 1917, when, in their joint reply to President Wil-
son's note of December 18, 1916, referring to Poland
the Allies said: "The intentions of His Majesty the
Emperor of Russia regarding Poland have been clear-
ly indicated in the proclamation which he has just
addressed to his armies."
That the Russian government did not seriously
regard the manifesto of Grand Duke Nicholas be-
came evident early in the war. For a
^ on t * me t ^ ie man ^ esto received no im-
perial sanction and no plans for the
promised Polish autonomy had been
thought of until several days after the capture of
Warsaw by the Germans in August, 1915. Only
then, when the Russian armies were in full and hasty
retreat, in the course of which they turned the coun-
try into a veritable desert and drove millions of people
from their homes, a joint committee of Russians and
Poles was appointed in Petrograd to devise a draft
* Reported in the daily press of June 9, 1916,
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 587
of a post-bellum organization of Poland. The Poles
felt keenly the mockery of this procedure. The ter-
rible devastation wrought by the Russians in their re-
treat and the atrocities committed, which probably
will some day be told to the world in full, as well as
their revolting behavior in Galicia during the inva-
sion, could hardly inspire the people with confidence
in the Tsar's beneficent designs for the future of Po-
land. Count Bobrinsky's administration of Galicia
will long be remembered by the people as a haunting
nightmare.
After the high sounding declarations of the mani-
festo, the Poles had a right to expect consideration
for their national feelings during the war at least.
Instead, they were abused and outraged at every
turn. Pillage, assault and rape by the soldiery went
on unrestricted. Respectable citizens were often
abused without cause, residences were searched and
even apparel and furniture appropriated by the offi-
cers. Many libraries and art collections were seized
and moved to Russia. The schools and the University
of Lemberg were closed and a campaign of Russifica-
tion was inaugurated. Trainloads of Russian primers
had been brought from Russia to educate the youth of
Galicia, portraits of the Tsar were placed everywhere,
and under the guidance of the metropolitan Eulogius
religious proselytism was carried on intensely among
the Ruthenians. When the Russians were forced
to evacuate Galicia they took with them many promi-
nent Poles as hostages, among others Dr. Tadeusz
Rutowski, the highly respected mayor of the City of
Lemberg, and Count Szeptycki, the Greek Catholic
metropolitan. In Russia both of these gentlemen
were imprisoned and subjected to ill-treatment. In
January, 1917, arrangements were finally completed
for the exchange of Dr. Rutowski for a prominent
588 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
Russian prisoner of war, and he returned home where
he was received with genuine enthusiasm. Count
Szeptycki, however, was less lucky. Unless the new
Russian government has released him, he is still in an
Orthodox monastery at Suzdal where, contrary to
all laws and conventions, he has been imprisoned de-
FIG. 263 TADEUSZ RUTOWSKI,
Mayor of the City of Lemberg
spite the fact that as a civil prisoner and a Greek
Catholic he should not have been placed under the
jurisdiction of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox
Church.
The misrule of Galicia during the occupation
served to cool .the original enthusiasm for Russia,
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 589
which had been exhibited by certain elements in Po-
land after the publication of the Grand Duke's mani-
festo. When the Russian government, desirous of
offsetting the international status of the Polish Le-
gions, resolved to organize counter legions with the
aid of a Polish Committee composed chiefly of Na-
tional Democratic leaders, it found no response on the
part of the country in spite of all the efforts of the
Committee. To save appearances, a man of unenvi-
able reputation was hired to undertake the task. He
whipped a large number of thieves and other criminals,
released for the purpose, into a regiment. It was how-
ever, too disgraceful a venture and the regiment was
soon disbanded. Then another man was engaged,
also of a questionable character, and the formation of
Polish counter legions was entrusted to him. He
rallied several hundred men, many from the aris-
tocracy, but the whole enterprise fell flat and came
to a speedy end.
Meanwhile, the Teutonic Eastern sweep was
coming on and early in August, 1915, Warsaw fell.
The proverbially gay capital had a
The Fail of grave and stern look when it changed
Warsaw and hands. Under the cover of calm, deep
die Dubious concern was in everybody's soul. The
Policy of the i j A / -j.1. n
Central Em- people were glad to part with Russia,
pires but it was not the Polish Legions who
took possession of the City. Another
ruthless and seemingly invincible foe became the
master of the heart of Poland. While Warsaw was
self-possessed and reserved, Galicia and other sec-
tions of Poland were jubilant and great happenings
were anticipated. On the 6th of August the "Polish
Gazette" published in Dombrowa Gornicza, a town in
the coal and iron district of Russian Poland, had the
following leader:
590 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
" 'Warsaw taken !' This news, as if an electric current,
sent a thrill through us albeit for several days it was already
known that the Muscovites would at last be compelled to leave
the city. For the first time in eighty-five years has the North-
ern raider withdrawn. For over three quarters of a century
the Muscovite vampire has throttled Warsaw. Every house,
every stone in the street reeks with blood and with the awful
agony of the victims of the Tsar. Not by thousands, but by
hundreds of thousands do we count Polish martyrs who
perished in the streets, homes, dungeons, the citadel and on
the gallows. The gendarme who arrests ; the Cossack who
beats Polish women until they bleed; the secret police agent
who surcharges the atmosphere with the miasms of fear, hid-
ing and suspicion ; and the thieving official those are the
necessary accessories to a picture of Warsaw as it has been.
And in spite of all this, Warsaw never became demoralized.
Each departing generation always handed down to its succes-
sor the traditions of revolt, revolution and resistance. Oceans
of blood did the Russian tribe draw from Warsaw, the heart
of Poland. The number of victims never diminished. The
prisons were always full, the secret police agents never too
many. Now the Northern bandit has fled. It is hard for us
to think of Warsaw without the cynical face and eyes of the
spy, without the rouble-hungry hands of the bureaucrat-thief.
"There are no Muscovites in Warsaw! This joyful fact
brings to our minds, however, thoughts fraught with serious
reflections. We all feel that a thing of immense historical
importance has been accomplished. The whole world knows
it. The eyes of the world are now fixed on our capital. We
wait thence for light; we wait thence for brightness and sin-
cerity; we wait the dispersion of doubts which must now be
dispelled. At this historic moment we must observe solemn
quietness and complete readiness. The destinies of our coun-
try are now being determined. We are awaiting the tocsin of
the capital, we are waiting at the same time for an unequivocal
call from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and from the Ger-
man Empire. At the moment when this takes place the whole
nation will go with the Legions, helping them toward the final
defeat of Russia."
Bitter, however, was the disappointment of those
who expected that Germany and Austria would soon
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAk Mi
make the anticipated proffer! In quick succession
cities and fortresses fell, and by the end of the year
the whole of Poland and large areas of Lithuania,
Volhynia and Podolia came under the joint occu-
pancy of the Teutonic allies, but no announcement
concerning the status of Poland was forthcoming.
For months not a word could be had from Vienna in
response to the insistent inquiries and protests of the
Supreme National Committee. Meanwhile, the
whole civil administration of the conquered territory
was taken over by the officials of the Central Powers,
and seA'ere requisitions were made.
The Germans were particularly inconsiderate in
depriving the people of their foodstuffs down to the
bare bone. The Prussian Colonization Commission
which suspended its nefarious work during the war,
was entrusted with the task of squeezing the maxi-
mum amount of food, metals and coal out of Poland
and of organizing the economic conditions of the oc-
cupied territory. The result of their labors was disas-
trous for the country. They impoverished the people
to the point of starvation and forced thousands of
workmen to go to Germany to work in the fields and
factories. At the same time the Germans granted a
number of concessions to the Poles, such as the right
to establish Polish schools and other educational in-
stitutions, to open the University and the Polytechnic
Institute, to take over the administration of justice
in the lower courts and to organize home rule for
cities. They turned the administration of the War-
saw postal service over to the city authorities and left
a considerable amount of leeway to the Warsaw City
Council in organizing the police and public health
work as well as other administrative policies.
They imposed, how r ever, a severe censorship over
the press, directed by a well-known Prussian Pole-
592 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
hater, George von Cleinow. No political gath-
erings were allowed and many men were imprisoned
or sent to Germany. All communication between the
Poles under the two occupations was made impossible
and the people were restricted in their travel from
town to town. The inhabitants of one county were
not allowed to visit people in another county without
urgent business and special permission. In spite of
the asseverations made by Chancellor Bethmann-
Hollweg that "the Polish question must and will be
solved by Germany and Austria-Hungary," negotia-
tions were going on between the Central Powers and
the Russian government. And Poland was to consti-
tute one of the prizes to Russia for a separate peace.
While these negotiations were being carried on,
the Polish press was completely muzzled. Adverse
criticism of the Tsar was not permitted and even the
mere mention of the Legions was prohibited, much
less advertisement for recruits. The German authori-
ties stated that recruiting was forbidden because
the men were needed for the economic reconstruc-
tion of the country. These acts by. Germany led to
the formation of a secret military organization, in
close touch with the Legions and with the avowed
aim of an uprising in the event of a separate peace be-
tween the Central Empires and Russia.
The conditions in the Austrian area of occupa-
tion were considerably better. The administration
of the territory was entrusted to Poles and the rights
of the people were recognized and respected. The
requisitions were not as heavy. In Galicia, however,
after the retreat of the Russians many of the old
home-rule liberties were temporarily suspended and
an Austrian was appointed Governor General of the
Province. Since 1866 this was the first appointment
of anyone but a Pole to the position.
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 593
It was a gloomy and disheartening year which
followed the fall of Warsaw, and as is usual in such
trying times, internal dissension arose. The Su-
preme National Committee, however, was untiring in
its persistence and endeavors. Through conferences
with representatives of the Central Empires, by me-
morials and the press, it did its utmost to bring about
a settlement of the issue. It was pointed out to the
Central Empires that they would have been acting
fully within the bounds of international law if they
allowed the Poles to set up a government of their own
before the end of the war, because Russian rule in
Poland since 183.1 has been based exclusively on the
fact that the Russian armies occupied the country.
Russian rule had no other foundation in law, as
on February 25, 1831, the Polish Diet formally and
lawfully declared the Russian Tsar deprived of the
crown of Poland because of his manifold and flagrant
A'iolations and abuses of the constitution which was
guaranteed by the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 and
sworn to by both Alexander I and Nicholas I. Tsar
Nicholas fully recognized the legality of this action
by the Diet, for in his negotiations with the Polish
Government in 1831 on several occasions he demand-
ed that the Diet^rescind its resolution and restore his
royal title. His demands, however, were never com-
plied with. When the Russian armies retired from
Poland in 1915 the nation, it was argued, was again
free to establish its government in accordance with
the provisions of the constitution which had been sus-
pended since 1831, provided Germany and Austria
were willing to relinquish the rights which accrued to
them from the fact that their armies were occupying
the country.
594 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
While efforts were being made to secure for Po-
land the desired political status, the immediate eco-
nomic, social and educational needs of
Polish Self- t j ie coun t r y W ere not neglected. Citizens'
Help During , . ,
the* War committees sprang up all over the land
to organize self-help and relief measures,
and with the scanty means at their disposal they ac-
complished marvelous results. Although Poland has
a population over three times as large as Belgium and
has suffered infinitely greater losses than the little
kingdom to the West, yet probably not a hundredth
of the relief funds raised for the sufferers in the pres-
ent war has been directed to Poland. The burden of
relieving the victims of the war fell upon the country
itself and the people bore it stoically and with self-ab-
negation. Those who had, shared their possessions
with their less fortunate brethren men and women
gave their services cheerfully and without reservation.
Poland will have to thank only the energy and spirit
of her own people for what has been accomplished
through excellent organization and for what has been
saved in life and wealth.
The women played an important part in this work
of self-help. Organized into leagues, they cared for
the needs of the men in the field as well as for their
families at home. They maintained shelters, public
kitchens, homes for orphans, milk stations, public
laundries and employment agencies. They worked as
nurses in the hospitals and cared for the indigent sick
in their homes. They organized playgrounds and
summer colonies for children, courses for illiterates,
libraries and vacation schools for teachers. They
helped in spreading the gospel of independence among
the people by spoken word and written. They edited
newspapers and published pamphlets and books.
They assisted the quartermasters of the army and the
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 595
civil commissioners of the National Supreme Com-
mittee in studying the economic conditions of the
country and applying assistance where it was most
needed. They trained teachers for the Polish ele-
mentary schools which were organized throughout
the country as soon as the Russians retired. About
twenty such pedagogical colleges were opened in
1915, and the number of students who applied sur-
passed all the expectations of the organizers. Where
forty were expected, two hundred enrolled. The edu-
cation of the youth was made a matter of particular
concern. The University and Polytechnic School of
Warsaw were re-opened in the autumn of 1915 with
excellent faculties composed of prominent Polish
scientists and scholars. Numerous colleges were es-
tablished in the principal cities in addition to those
which had existed before the war, and in order to pro-
mote high standards of instruction and to discuss the
numerous pedagogical and administrative school
problems facing the educators, a national convention
of teachers was held at Warsaw in January, 1917.
As the nation by its political maturity and
strength of organization and self-help exhibited its
remarkable fortitude and virility, so the
T J le u H J; r v S J n Legions bv their heroism and devotion
of the Polish o. . . , , . ,
Legions to tne cause of independence revealed
once more Poland's readiness and de-
termination to reach her cherished goal. Though
equipped and provided less adequately than the sol-
diers of other armies, they were fighting under the
banner of the White Eagle, in Polish uniforms and un-
der Polish command, and they bore cheerfully all the
hardships of the Eastern campaigns. Their deeds
have brought back all the martial glory of old Poland
-the conqueror of Moscow, the challenger of mighty
Sweden and the savior of Vienna when the hosts of
596 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the Crescent threatened Christendom. Whether m
the snow-capped peaks of the Carpathians or on the
sun-scorched plains of Bessarabia, the Legions have
fought with such bravery as only men dedicated to a
FIG. 264 TYPE OF A POLISH LEGIONARY
great ideal can fight. Snubbed at first by the Ger-
mans because of the improvised character of their
army, they soon won respect and earned the admira-
tion of the highest military commanders. Because
of their bravery, the Poles were often ordered to the
most dangerous positions and though exposed to
murderous fire they never faltered. The evident re-
solve on the part of the general staffs of the Teutonic
armies never, to mention the accomplishments of the
Legions in the daily war bulletins had at times to be
abandoned in view of the stupendous feats performed,
597
and on several occasions "Polish days" were pro-
claimed by the Austrian supreme command.
One such day was June 13, 1915. In the recently
published diary of Berthold Merwin, an officer of the
Polish Legions, one can read the description of a Po-
lish cavalry charge which caused this special mention :
"Not only we who lived through it but all Poland will
remember this day of glory and sorrow. A century ago Samo-
Sierra came to be written in letters of gold on the pages of
the history of Polish arms, and now our children will learn the
history of this day and our bards will sing of the charge upon
the heights of Rokitna led by Captain Zbigniew Dunin-
Wonsowicz.
"At dawn our infantry carried an assault upon the heights.
They reached the outskirts of the village and stopped. As
long as the Russian infantry with a large number of machine
guns and cannons, well hidden in their trenches, occupied the
crest of the hill, all attacks were doomed to be drowned in
blood.
"Then the cavalry was ordered to charge the hill. The
squadron fell into line. The horses whinnied, on them our
daring boys. . . and they rode through the fields, four platoons
of them. Within three kilometers of the enemy they formed
a line, and the trot gave way to a gallop, faster and faster,
wilder and wilder... Like a hurricane they swept up the
hill behind them a cloud, before them the glitter of drawn
swords. The enemy line gained, the first empty trenches taken
at a leap, and the'second line was reached.
"Suddenly the thunder of the Muscovite guns shook the
air the horrible noise of machine gun and the burst of
shrapnel. But Wonsowicz with his uhlans never faltered.
Here one has fallen, here a horse is running wild without a
rider here another is rearing in fright and somebody has slid
into a rampart and here are some trampled in the wild onrush
of cavalry. And still like a scythe the machine guns mowed
down the ranks and the shrapnel burst overhead. But now
the second trench is taken and on they sweep. More riderless
horses. The glittering, charging wave of glory is over the
works and then gone. The volleys quiet down, the rattling
of the machine guns stops, and the grey clouds of shrapnel
smoke drift lightly in the air. A terrible moment of dead
598 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
silence, our hearts beating as if trying to tear through our
breasts something grips us by the throat, strangling and
choking. I looked at my fellow officers through a mist and
did not recognize their eyes.
"Is it an apparition or a reality. . . ?
"Down the village road ride they who went through this
Gehenna, bringing with them their dead and wounded.
"And the road lay open for the infantry !
Two days later at the funeral exercises of those
who perished in the charge of Rokitna a surviving
member of the squadron, swathed in bandages, made
the following speech:
"Here are our comrades. . . Sent to death, they rode with
a full. realization of their fate, yet none of them turned back
his horse. They renewed the traditions of the Polish uhlan
of a century ago. They met with a heroic death. Seeing this,
let all, all our enemies know and remember what the Pole is
able to do. Let us hope that this blood is not shed in vain, that
it will turn the scale, already overbalanced with so many vic-
tims, and that thanks to them our national ideals will be real-
ized."
Reading of the infinite number of such and simi-
lar sacrifices made in the name of Poland's liberty
and independence, it is impossible to conceive that
such a nation can be longer hampered in the realiza-
tion of its most sacred ideals.
The inspiration of the idea of a Polish military
force and the most active and indefatigable worker
in this direction was Joseph Pilsudski,
Joseph Pilsud- the present Secretary of War in the
ski and the Provisional Polish government. He
e fi rs *- incarnated his idea in the Fighting
Squad of the Polish Socialist Party
which was very active in the fight on Russian autoc-
racy during the revolution of 1905-1907.
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 599
Joseph Pilsudski was born in Lithuania in 1867
and is a scion of an ancient princely family, distin-
FIG. 265 JOSEPH PTLSUDSKI,
organizer of the Polish Legions
guished for its patriotism. For its active participation
in uprisings the family was deprived of many of its
estates. When Joseph was a small boy his father was
600 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
impoverished by the fire which destroyed his home
and the adjoining properties. His mother gave him
his early education at home, instilling in him exalted
feelings of patriotism. Later, when he entered a Rus-
sian school, his sensitive nature revolted against the
abuse and insult heaped upon Poland, her history and
her people. In 1885 he entered the University of
Kharkov and joined the student revolutionary soci-
ety. Two years later he was arrested and exiled to
Siberia. In a dying condition from consumption, he
was released in 1892.
During the years spent in exile he acquired a
great deal of knowledge and worked out the daring
plan for redeeming his nation from bondage. He
preached his gospel in season and out of season and
enthused a great many men and women in all walks
of life. Believing that only by an armed uprising could
Poland throw off her shackles, he devoted many years
of study to military art, of which he became a master.
In Russian Poland and Galicia he organized secret
military schools where officers for the future Polish
army received instruction.
Pilsudski is a born leader of men, admired by all
who come in contact with him. He is worshipped by
his soldiers who will do anything at his command.
Everywhere he'is esteemed for his high principles, ex-
alted conception of duty, generous heart, bravery and
modesty. During the course of the present war he
won great distinction as a general and strategist, and
acquired wide popularity among the people as the
country's redeemer. His name has already become
almost mythical in Poland. When he came to War-
saw in the fall of 1916, great throngs were awaiting
him at the railroad station. He was deluged with
flowers. The horses of his carriage were unhitched
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 601
and he was drawn through the streets by the popu-
lace. "Elected by nobody, appointed by no one," says
one writer, "he came as the lightning out of the dark-
ness of the night and the nation acclaimed him as
their Chief." Only a few years ago denounced by
some as a dangerous agitator and impractical idealist,
Pilsudski is to-day the generally recognized leader of
Poland.
It was his popularity and the masterful stroke of
resigning his position as Brigadier-General of the
Legions in the autumn of 1916, which, probably more
than anything else, was responsible for the recogni-
tion of Poland's independence on the part of the Cen-
tral Powers. Seeing that all the negotiations of the
Supreme National Committee and other political or-
ganizations were powerless to secure this recognition,
he determined to force the issue. Many months prior
to this step he discouraged recruiting for the Legions
and a secret organization was formed at his behest.
Tt enlisted tens of thousands of well trained military
men, to be used in an uprising against Germany
should she bargain with Russia for a separate peace.
As a counterpart of Pilsudski's resignation from
active service in the army came the resignation of the
powerful Socialist deputy, Tgnace Daszynski, from the
Polish Parliamentary Club at Vienna. It was a dra-
matic way of serving notice on the governments of the
Central Powers that the Polish people had ceased to
believe in the sincerity of the indefinite promises made
on various occasions and that they did not propose to
be duped any longer and to be used as a stake in a
possible separate peace-bargaining with Russia. It
served its purpose. The two governments became
more willing to negotiate. "These negotiations lasted
a month and involved journeys of the Polish depu-
602 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
tation both to Berlin and to Vienna. There was
no question of German "Kultur" deluding or deceiv-
ing the Polish envoys. They were too wide awake for
that. They understood too well just what they wanted.
In the speech made by Dr. Brudzinski, the very
able Rector of the Warsaw University, in the name of
the deputation, he laid down the following condi-
FIG. 266 IGNACE DASZYNSKI,
the highly gifted leader of the Polish Socialists
tions : first, a Regent must be nominated; second, the
frontier between the two zones of military occupa-
tion must be abolished; third, a Polish State Council
must be formed at once to elaborate a constitution
and to regulate the administration of the State; and
fourth, a military department must be brought into
being to organize a Polish army. As to the exact
frontiers of the new State, the deputation were willing
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 603
to leave the delineation open until the end of the war.
But on every other side they stood inflexibly firm."*
As a result of the negotiations came the mani-
festo of November 5th, read in the name of the two
emperors by the military represent-
The Prociama- atives at Warsaw and Lublin. The
. t10 " of T p ,- manifesto declared that :
land s Inde-
pendence, "Inspired by firm confidence in a final
November 5, victory of their arms and prompted by a desire
1916 to lead 'the Polish territorities, wrested by their
armies under heavy sacrifices from Russian
domination, toward a happy future, His Majesty the German
Emperor and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria
and Apostolic King of Hungary have resolved to form of
these territories an independent State with a hereditary
monarchy and a constitutional government. The exact fron-
tiers of the Kingdom of Poland will be outlined later. The new
Kingdom will receive the guarantees needed for the free
development of its own forces by a union with the two allied
Powers. The glorious traditions of the Polish armies of the
past and the memory of the brave Polish comrades in arms in
the great war of our days shall continue to live in your own
national army. The organization, instruction and command
of this army will be arranged by common agreement.
"The allied monarchs express the confident hope that Po-
lish wishes for the evolution of a Polish State and for the na-
tional development of a Polish kingdom will now be fulfilled,
taking due consideration of the general political conditions
prevailing in Europe, and of the welfare and the safety of
their own countries and nations.
"The great realm which the western neighbors of the
Kingdom of Poland will have on their eastern frontier will be
a free and happy State, enjoying its own national life, and they
will welcome with joy the birth and prosperous development
of this State."
The proclamation was received with great en-
thusiasm in Poland but it failed to include certain of
*J. H. Harley "The Polish Review," Geo. Allen & Unwin, Ltd.,
London, Vol. 1, No. 1., January, 1917, p. 12.
604
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
the points insisted upon by the Poles. This probably
explains the reserve of Poland's official reply to it.
When Governor General von Beseler completed the
reading of the manifesto to the large assembly which
met in the old Royal Palace at Warsaw, Dr. Joseph
Brudzinski, then President, of the City Council of
Warsaw and Rector of the University, said on behalf
of Poland :
FIG. 267 THE ROYAL, PALACE AT WARSAW
"We receive this great act of the two monarchs, which
recognizes our imprescriptible rights to an independent state
existence, with the faith that it will soon be realized in a
friendly and purposeful spirit. As one of the fundamental
guarantees we consider the appointment of a Regent who shall
be the symbol of the Polish state, and the organization of a
Council of State which shall act as a provisional government
until the Polish King shall become the head of a finally or-
ganized Polish State with well defined boundaries. We be-
lieve that the community of interests of the Central Powers
with those of the Polish State will create harmonious neigh-
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 605
borly relations and will ensure favorable conditions for all the
nations concerned. Will Your Excellency convey to the two
magnanimous monarchs expressions of our faith in the most
successful realization of their will and of our gratitude that is
due to them. Long live free independent Poland !" *
Strikingly apparent in this dignified speech by
Dr. Brudzinski is the lack of an overabundance of ex-
pressions of gratefulness and the insistence upon a
speedy and effective realization of the grant. The
officially admitted German "scrap of paper" view of
treaties is too well known in Poland for anyone to be
carried away with promises until they receive actual
substantiation.
The first few weeks following the proclamation
justified the existing apprehensions. There was con-
siderable open opposition to it in many
'^^T 1 ^ 011 " quarters in Germany. Nothing was done
al Polish Gov- \_ r T? j
ernment about the appointment of a Regent and
no immediate plans were laid for the
formation of a State Council and the drafting of a con-
stitution. Subsequently, when a plan was presented on
the part of the German government for the organ-
ization of the State Council and for raising an army,
man}'- of its features were promptly disapproved by
the Poles.
At one time there was a rumor current about the
Hapsburg Archduke, Karl Stefan being proposed for
the regency. The Archduke had long been regarded
in certain Polish circles as the candidate for the royal
office in Poland should the independence of the coun-
try be re-established. He was reported as possessing
strong Polish attachments. Two of his daughters
were married to Poles and the Archduke himself had
acquired an estate in Galicia, entertained friendly
* "Glos Warszawy" ("Warsaw's Voice," a daily), November 5,
1916.
606
relations with his Polish neighbors and spoke the
Polish language. The mention of Karl Stefan's name
came to have peculiar significance in connection with
the announcement made by the Austrian Emperor
simultaneously with the proclamation of Poland's
independence, that it was his wish to grant complete
autonomy to Galicia "at the moment when the new
Polish state came into existence." This was inter-
preted as a preliminary step toward the cession of
Galicia to the new State. The governments of the
Central Empires well realize that the existence of an
independent Poland without Galicia and also without
an outlet to the sea, which can be afforded only by the'
cession of the Prussian holdings of Polish territory,
would be an anomaly, and that disregard of this in-
tense and natural aspiration of the Poles for complete
consolidation would only defer the equitable and ra-
tional settlement of the Polish Question.
The rumor proved to be a rumor only. Evidently
no agreement could be reached between Berlin and
Vienna and, as a result, no Regent was appointed.
The proposal that the Council of State be presided
over during the course of the war by the German
Governor General was evidently made to test out the
temper of the country, for it was withdrawn in the
face of the unanimous opposition which arose. An-
other serious clash came over the question of the or-
ganization of the army. The Central Powers pro-
posed that recruiting stations be set up immediately
all over Poland to raise an army. Pilsudski and the
majority of the political leaders of the country ob-
jected to such a procedure, pointing out that Poland
alone and only through a properly and legally chosen
Diet can decide this question.
The Polish demands in this as well as in other
matters were finally granted by the Central Powers.
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 607
A Polish Provisional Regent, known as the Marshal
of the Crown, was appointed in the person of Waclav
Niemoyowski, a grandson of Bonawentura Niemoy-
owski, the last president of the Polish government of
1831. This choice was made to emphasize the il-
legality of the annexation of the Congressional King-
dom by Russia in 1831 and to recognize the status of
Poland as it existed from 1815 to 1831 by virtue of
the Treaty of Vienna. Pending the convocation of
the Diet, a Council of State was organized, composed
of twenty-five representatives from all parts of the
country. Fifteen representatives were chosen from
the part of Poland occupied by Germany and ten from
the part occupied by Austria. All political parties,
religious creeds and social classes are represented.
The State Council is presided over by the Marshal of
the Crown, and constitutes the provisional govern-
ment of the country. Germany and Austria each
have ex-officio representatives in the Council.
On January 15, 1917, the Council met for the first
time and adopted rules and by-laws. It ap-
pointed a number of committees and created eight
executive departments. The heads were selected
from the membership of the Council. The following
are the departments: War, Treasury, Political Af-
fairs, Interior, Social Economy, Labor, Justice, and
Public Education and Creeds. Pilsudski became the
head of the War Department, Michael Lempicki, the
gifted ex-deputy to the Russian Duma, was put in
charge of the Department of the Interior, Count
Rostworowski heads the Department of Political
Affairs and a Socialist veteran, Mr. Kunowski, became
the chief of the Department of Labor. Other depart-
ments have equally able and experienced administra-
tors. Each department has an advisory committee
608 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
composed in part of members of the State Council
and in part of outside experts. The advisory body on
religious matters consists of two Roman Catholics,
two Protestants and one Jew.
The Council issued an appeal to the nation, in
which it promised to arrange for a convocation of a
legislative assembly in the near future, to prepare a
draft of a constitution "based on the principle of civic
equality of all citizens and adapted to modern needs,"
to establish a strong government and to organize the
finances of the State. The Council considers it its
duty to stimulate the economic upbuilding of the
country and .to reconstruct the ruined towns and
villages. In the opinion of the Council "the existence
of an army is the first condition of independence,"
and it hopes to create a large, well-trained and rigidly
disciplined military force.
Pending the convocation of the Diet, however,
it will not introduce universal service but will rely
on voluntary enlistment. By a decree of November
26, 1916, the Central Powers placed credits at
the service of the State Council and gave full author-
ity to the Council to raise funds by either taxation
or loans.*
The Polish Legions, which were released by the
Austrian Emperor from their former oath of alle-
giance, swore fealty to the Provisional Polish Govern-
ment and became the nucleus of the Polish army.
They have been stationed in the various cities to re-
place the troops of the Central Empires, which had
hitherto garrisoned the country. Similarly, all politi-
cal, civic.and religious bodies in Poland pledged them-
selves to support the Provisional Government. Over-
coming one by one the numerous difficulties put in
* "Le Moniteur Polonais," Lausanne, February 15, 1917, p. 50.
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 609
the way by the Central Empires and by the exigencies
of the war, through a determined and united effort
Poland is emerging from this chaos and holocaust an
apparently independent political State. Its perma-
nence depends, however, on the defeat of German
autocracy and imperialism.
For the last hundred and fifty years it has been
Poland's ill luck to have her brightest opportunities
ruined by an adverse turn of events.
T r h !u Sc i U r u Almost invariably the causes were a
of the Polish * . , - ,
Question lack * rea ^ interest on the part of the
western nations or their preoccupation
with internal problems or wars, and the unshaken
solidarity of the autocracies of Russia and Prussia.
Fortunately, the present conditions are entirely
different. The great war that is being waged now, in-
volving almost the whole world, has the redemption
of oppressed nationalities for one of its aims. The
fullest, noblest and most sincere expression of this
ideal was voiced before the forum of the world by the
President of the United States in his historic address
to the Senate on January 22, 1917, which happened
to be delivered on the day of the anniversary of the
last Polish uprising and in the centennial year of Kos-
ciuszko's death. While expounding the high humani-
tarian ideals of the Republic, the President said
he takes it for granted "that statesmen every-
where are agreed that there should be a united,
independent and autonomous Poland." The moral
effect of this pronouncement by the Chief of
this great nation cannot be overestimated. Presi-
dent Wilson has rendered to Poland such service
that his name will ever be gratefully remem-
bered in the annals of Polish history. The Poles,
proverbially loyal and appreciative, will never forget
that in the hour of their supreme trial they had the
610 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
powerful moral support of the head of this glorious
Republic. The provisional State Council of Poland
as well as other bodies sent to President Wilson ex-
pressions of their deepest gratitude and respect for
"this wise and noble understanding of the rights of
the Polish people." The students' fraternities and
other associations organized joyful demonstrations
before the American consulate at Warsaw. The par-
ticipation of the United States in the war, which as-
sures the triumph of justice and democracy over law-
lessness and autocracy and which gives to this coun-
try a voice in the councils of the nations at the close
of hostilities, assures to Poland a powerful, righteous
and high-minded ally.
There is now one more propitious circumstance
tending toward a satisfactory solution of the Polish
Question, which never existed before. The blood-
thirsty, rapacious and imperialistic Russian autocracy
is no more, and the Russian nation through its
honorable provisional government has declared
itself in favor of Poland's independence. In an offi-
cial proclamation, the provisional government an-
nounced that it wishes Poland to decide for herself
the form of government she desires and takes it for
granted that the decision will be for "a new independ-
ent Poland formed of all the three now separate
parts."* The fact that the foundation of an inde-
pendent Polish State has already been laid, coupled
with the weight of the pronouncement of the Presi-
dent of the United States, has no doubt greatly im-
pressed the Russian statesmen and prompted this
auspicious declaration of New Russia, for it was
only several months ago that Mr. Milyukov, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional
Russian Government, said: "It can be definitely
* Reported in the daily press of March 30th, 1917.
FIG. 268 WOODROW WILSON,
President of the United States
612 THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
stated that Russia cannot tolerate the idea of an in-
dependent Poland, even as a buffer state between
Russia and Germany." *
Following the recent official Russian declaration
in favor of Polish independence, the Polish deputies in
the Duma resigned, recognizing that they ceased to
represent districts forming a part of the Russian
Empire.
The Polish Question has never before been so
near its full and satisfactory solution. The Poles never
doubted that it must be solved satisfactorily, even in
the darkest moments of their history. They knew
that "Poland, with a land heritage of three-fourths
of a million square kilometers, with a historic past
one thousand years old, with a rich civilization, with
a beautiful language and literature, with an annual
economic production amounting to several billions,
with a robust and virile population of twenty-five
million Poles, of whom almost two millions have been
called to arms in this war is not a fragment, that it
is a great nation, one of the few great nations of
Europe and of the world."** They knew that their
right to their heritage is imprescriptible and that they
are entitled to a sincere consideration of their case on
the part of the great democracies of the world.
They knew that a nation which in its ethno-
graphic boundaries alone is the seventh nation of
Europe cannot be wiped out forever. Only Russia,
Germany, France, Austria, England and Italy have
populations in excess of ethnographic Poland. The
Poles were convinced that only an independent Po-
land was a Condition for the permanent peace of
Europe and ior the restoration of a proper balance of
*"The Independent," New York, September 25, 1916.
** "Uwagi," I, Geneva, 1916, p. 11.
THE POLISH QUESTION AND THE GREAT WAR 613
power, upset by the partitions, of which Talleyrand
said, "le partage de la Pologne etait pire qu'un crime,
c'etait une betise." They were convinced that only
an independent Polish state could check the unhealthy
imperialistic rivalries of Pan-Slavism which spelled
Russian domination, and of Pan-Germanism which
was equivalent to the Prussian mailed fist.
Likewise, they knew that an independent Polish
state will be the only satisfactory solution of the
existing military frontier anomalies of the three parti-
tioning states. Before the war, Poland formed a prom-
ontory thrust, as it were, into Germany and Austria-
Hungary, and only the middle course of the Vistula
was in Russian hands. In case of war no offensive
could be started by Russia under the circumstances,
as both her flanks immediately became exposed. This
danger had long been recognized by the Russian mili-
tary authorities. Only the interposition of an inde-
pendent Polish state between Russia and the other
two countries can allay all unhealthy rivalry and
bring permanent peace to all the countries con-
cerned. Free and republican Russia working out
her own great future behind the most advantageous
strategic line liberates Lithuania, White Russia and
other sections of Ruthenia. These countries, all
or some of them, may at their own free will again
enter into a political confederacy with Poland, for the
common cultural and economic advantages of the
peoples concerned.
Despite all the persecutions of the Russian
government, the Polish language and Polish civiliza-
tion are still predominant in Lithuania and in White
Russia and a strong bond of kinship persists. Kos-
ciuszko and Mickiewicz were Lithuanian Poles. So is
Joseph Pilsudski. Thousands of the most patriotic
and active Poles were born and raised in the border
614
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF POLAND
lands of the old Republic. A large number of
the Polish legionaries hail from there. Because
of greater oppression the Poles from the out-
lying territories are possessed, perhaps, of greater
moral force, grit and determination than the
Poles of ethnographic Poland. Indeed, no finer
flower can bloom out of the carnage of the present
war than a reconstructed and united, free and inde-
pendent Poland, once more confederated with Lithu-
ania and Ruthenia "as the equal with the equal and
the free with the free."
" Gli uomini liberi sono fratelli."
615
Key to the Pronunciation of Polish Names.
A is always pronounced as a in father.
C is always pronounced as ts. hence Slowacki is Slo-vat-ski,
Potocki is Po-tot-ski, Waclaw is Vat-slav.
E is always pronounced as e in bet or met.
G is always pronounced as g in go, hence Gerson is Guerson.
H is never silent.
I is always pronounced as ee in bee, hence Izbica is Eez-bee-tsa.
J is always pronounced as y in yes, hence Jagiello is Ya-guel-lo,
Jadwiga is Yad-vee-ga, Jaworski is Ya-vor-ski.
O is always pronounced as o in order or orchard.
U is always pronounced as oo in root, hence Ujejski is Oo-yeay-
ski, Uchanski is Oo-han-ski.
W is always pronounced as v, hence Warna is Varna, Wilno is
Vilno.'
Y is always pronounced as i as in din.
Certain combinations of consonants have definite sound
values, like the combination of sh and ch in English.
Cz in Polish is equivalent to the English ch in church, much, suchj-
etc., hence Gzeslaw is Che-slav, Mickiewicz is Meets-kie-
veech.
Ch is practically h, hence Chelm is pronounced like Helm, Chod-
kiewicz is Hod-kie-veech.
Sz is equivalent to the English sh in mush or rush, hence Szawle
reads as Shav-le, Warszawa (Warsaw) is pronounced
Var-shah-vah.
Rz is equivalent to z in azure, hence Przemysl is Pzhe-misl.
An apostrophe over a consonant softens the sound, hence
n is pronounced as n in canon, s is pronounced almost like sh,
and c is almost equivalent to ch. An apostrophe over an 6 turns
the pronunciation of the letter into double o in English.
In Polish words the accent always falls on the penult, i. e., on
the syllable preceding the last, hence Lokie'-tek, Kosciusz'-ko,
Pilsud'-ski.
617
INDEX
Abbeys in Poland 12-14
Abraham of Zbonz, Leader or a
Confederacy In the Reign of
Wladyslav III 92
Agricultural Academy at Dublany 537
Agricultural Society 472-473, 476
Closing of, 1861 479
Albrecht, Hohenzollern Anspach,
Grand Master of the Order of
the Cross 131-133
Alexander, King of Poland, 1501-
1506 106, 123-127
Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, 369-
370, 374-375, 386-387, 389, 398,
403, 405-406, 408-411, 413-415,
417, 420, 471, 482-484
Altranstaedt, Peace at, 1706 281
Andrushov, Agreement with Mus-
covy, at 1667 260-269
Altmark, Truce of, 1629 188
Amurad, Turkish Sultan 93
.Anna Aldona, wife of Kazimir
the Great 68
Arctowski, Henryk, Scientist 539
Arians, Polish Religious Sect 255
Banishment of, 1658 256
Askenazy, Simon, quoted. 393, 403, 561
Asnyk, Adam, poet 511
AsQuith, British Prime Minister,
quoted 522
August II (1697-1733), King of
Poland 276-281, 28328?
August III (1733-1763), King of
Poland 288-296
Austrian Occupation of Poland,
1915-1916 592, 607
Austrian Succession, War of.. 295-296
Aydukiewicz, painter 581
Babinski, Scientist 539
Bacciarelli, painter 323
Eadeni, minister . . . 540
Bakchiseray (Crimea), Treaty of,
1681 269
llandurski, Wladyslav, Bishop of
Lemberg 583-584
Bank of Poland 413-471
Bar, Fortress of 133
Bar Confederacy, 1768-1772, 304-
308. 311
I'arker, J, Ellis, quoted.. 357, 397, 488
Barss, Polish lawyer 328, 361
Farzykowski, Stanislav 434
Basel, Council of, 1431-1449 96
Batory, Stefan, King of Poland,
1574-1586 167, 170-177
Bebel, August, German Socialist,
quoted 519
Beck, J. Prof., University of Lem-
berg 561
Bern, Joseph, General, 441, 460, 468-469
Benedict XII, Pope 53
Benningsen, Russian General 375
Beresteczko on the Styr,
Battle at, 1651 246
Berg, Count, Russian Governor-
General of Poland 493
Berlin, Agreement at, 1719. .. .285-286
Berthier, French Minister of War 366
Beseler, Von, German Governor-
General of Poland 604
Bessarabia, Recognition of Polish
Sovereignty, 1396 71
Bethmann-Hollweg, German Chan-
cellor, quoted 522
Biala Cerkiev, Peace of, 1651 246
Bielski, Martin, Historian 150
Bilinski, Leon, Polish Statesman
and Scholar 540, 580
Bismarck, Prince, Prussian States-
man 488, 523, 523
Bloch, Jan, banker 561
Bobrinsky, Count, Russian Gov-
ernor of Galicia 587
Bobrzynski, Prof., quoted 234
"Bogarodzica," early War Song. 82
Boguslawski, Woyciech, Founder
of the first theatre in Poland,
1765 326
Bohemia, Conquest by Boleslav
the Brave 16
Revolution of 1415 90
Bohemian Brotherhood (Re-
ligious) 139-140
Boleslav the Bold or Generous,
1058-1079 24-25
Boleslav the Brave, 982-1025 A. D.
16-21
Boleslav of Mazovia 94
Boleslav the Wrymouthed ((1102-
1138) 27, 30, 32, 42-44
Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland,
Wife of Zygmunt I.. 129, 153, 270
Boniface VIII, Pope 49
Boyko, Jacob, Peasant Leader of
Galicia 521
Brandenburg, 43, 44, 49, 160, 188,
263-254, 268
Elector of, crowned king in
Prussia, 1701 278-279
Brandes, George, quoted 449, 456
Branicki, Francis Xavier, 306, 319,
329, 342-343
618
INDEX
Branickl, John Clement, Hetman 296
Breslau (Wroclaw), Commercial
City 36, 61
Brougham, Lord, English States-
man 460-461
Brudzinski, Dr. Joseph, Rector of
Warsaw University. . 602, 604, 605
Buczacz, Treaty of, 1672 26S
Budny, Simon, Author of Biblical
Studies 256
Butrymowicz, Political Writer. . . 328
Calinski, Sawa, Cossack, Bar
Confederate 306
Calvinism in Poland 139
Campo Formio Treaty, 1797.... 364
Castellans 15
Castlereagh, Lord, quoted 397
Catherine Hapsburg, third Wife of
Zygmunt II August 151, 158
Catherine II, Empress of Russia,
296, 298-302, 311-314, 320, 329-
331, 342-344, 355, 368, 499
Catholic Union, Closing by Rus-
sian Government, 1909 551
Cecora, Battle of, 1620 187
Championnet, French General in
Napoleonic Wars 364-365
Charles VI, King of Austria 286
Charles X Gustavus, King of
Sweden 249-255
Charles XII, King of Sweden. 278-283
Chelm 59
Made Separate Province, 1912
by the Russian Government.. 555
Chlopicki, Joseph, General, Com-
mander-in-Chief of Polish
Armies, 3o5, 378, 423, 428, 429,
432-434
Chmielnickl, Bohdan, Leader of
Cossacks 239-248, 256-257
Chocim, Battle at, 1673 264
Chodklewicz, Jan Karol, Hetman 184
Chopin, Frederick, Polish Com-
poser 457-458
Christianity, Conversion of People
to, (963) 12
Chrzanowski, Defender of Trem-
bowla 560
Chuquet, French Historian 353
Church, Struggle with State
During Reign of Zygmunt the
Old 137-138
During Reign of Zygmunt II
August 151-152
During Reign of Stefan Batory 174
During Reign of Zygmunt III. 179
Ciolek (Vitellio). Polish Scientist,
XlVth Century 63
Cities in Poland, Development 107-122
Decline of 157. 214-216
Reforms Brought About by the
Four Years' Diet 335-336
Cleinow, von, Georg, Prussian
Censor of Poland 592
Clement XIV, Pope 315
Clergy, 89-91, 137-152, 189, 210-213,522
College of Physicians and Sur-
geons 472
Collegium Nobilium 293-294
Colloquia, Councils of the Prince
35, 100
Commendoni, John Francis, Papal
Nuncio 151
Confederated Independence Par-
ties of Poland 571-572
Conrad, Prince of Mazovia 45
Conrad, Joseph, Novelist 485
Constance, Council of, 1415. .. .90-104
Constantine, Grand Duke, Brother
of Tsar Alexander I, 405-406,
409, 411, 414-415, 420, 422,
424-425, 430-431, 434
Constantine, Grand Duke, Brother
of Tsar Alexander II 484-486
Constitution (Polish), 192-223, 294,
319, 321, 336-342, 403-405, 408-
409-417
Conti, Francois Louis de, Candi-
date to the Polish Throne,
1697 276
Convocation Diet of 1573 166
Under Wladyslav IV 224
Of 1764 265
Copernicus (Nicholas) 77, 147-148
Cossacks 135, 206-
207, 236-248, 256-260, 263, 282
Courland, Swedish Occupation,
279, 281, 288-289
Occupation by Muscovy, 1737... 295
Cowl Confederacy, 1382-1384 .. .164-165
Cracow
Abolition of Serfdom, 1848,
465-466
Academy of Sciences at, 1364, 62, 537
Annexation of, in 999 A.D. ... 16
Annexation by Austria 355
Capture by Prussia, 1784 353
Capture by Russia 312
Capture by Sweden ."50
City Council of, 1536 142
City Court Established at, 1356 60
Conquest by Prince Ponialowski 384
End of the Republic, 1848 . .463-466
German Population in Rebellion
Against Polish Prince 50
Kosciuszko Hill 399-400
Kosciuszko's Manifesto, 1794... 349
INDEX
619
Prerogatives of the Grand Duke 31
A Principality of Poland 30
Representation in Diet 228
Republic, 1815 398
Slaughter of the Galician
Gentry, 1846 465
Supreme National Committee,
1914 576
Treaty of, 1525 133
University 71-79, 142-145, 573
Crownlands, Restitution of, 1562,
156-157
Cudnow (Volhynia), Vctory over
Muscovites, 1661 257
Czarniecki, Stefan, Hetman, 250-
252, 255, 257
Czar^oryski, Adam, Prince. ... 369,
371, 374, 387; 389, 403, 406-410
420, 426, 429, 431, 433, 460-461
Czartoryski, August, Prince 298
Czartoryski, Wladyslav, Prince,
son of Adam 488
Czartoryski Family, 294-302, 308, 328
Czenstochowa 252
Battle of, 1773 312
Czernihov 260
Czystochlebski, Simon Marcius,
Pedagogue 150
Danllowski, Gustav, Novelist . . . 581
Daszynski, Ignace, Socialist Lead-
er 601-602
Deebitch, Russian Field Marshal,
434, 436, 440
Dekabrist Revolution in Russia.. 420
Dekert, John, President of War-
saw 328, 335
Dembinski, General, in War
against Russia, 1831 440, 468
Demetrius (the False) Tsar of
Muscovy 185
Democratic Society (Polish),
formed in France 460-461, 464
Devastation of Poland 586
Dickstein, Samuel, Mathematician 561
Dissidents in Poland, 152, 166,
301-303, 320
Dlugosz, Jan, Polish Historian, 7,
104, 150
DmowskI, Roman, Leader of the
National Democratic Party
521, 558
Dombrowski, Jan Henryk, Organ-
izer of the Polish Legions of
the Napoleonic Era, 353, 359-
368,, 372, 388, 393
Domeyko, Polish Geologist 538-539
Doroszenko, Leader of Cossacks. . 260
Drucki-Lubecki, Prince 387
Druzbacka, Elizabeth, Writer 293
Duma (Russian) 554-559, 612
Dumb Diet, First, 1717 285, 300
Second, 1768 303-304, 319
Dumouriez, French General 308
Dunayewski, Bishop of Cracow
and Cardinal 464
Dunayewski, Austrian Minister of
Finance 540
Dwernlcki, Joseph, General in
War with Russia, 1831 434
DzialyJiski, Count 373
Dzierzanowski, Bar Confederate. . 308
Dziewanna, Goddess of Spring- 10
Dzikow, Confederacy of, 1734.... 39
Education In Poland 551-552, 595
Educational Commission 315-319
Eleanor, Queen of Poland, Wife
of Michael Wisniowiecki 262
Emigration (Polish), 359, 441,
458-461, 463, 483
Engels, German Socialist Writer. . 519
Enghien (d 1 ), Duke, French Can-
didate to the Throne of Po-
land 259-261
Esthonia 158, 180, 184
Etreicher, T., Prof., quoted 146
Feldman, Wilhelm, Polish Publi-
cist 561
Feldstein, Herman, quoted 566
Ferdinand, Austrian Archduke... 382
Fersen, Russian General 353
Filipowicz, Titus, Socialist Writer 518
Flemming, Saxon Field Marshal 27*
Four Years' Diet, 1788-1792, 332-
342, 345
Francis I, Emperor of Austria, 463
Frederick IV, Danish King 27"
Frederick August, of Saxony,
Duke of Warsaw 377-395
Freemasonry in Poland, 414, 418, 420
Friederich Barbarossa 31
Friederich II, German Emperor. . 46
Friederich II, the Great, King of
Prussia 300, 308-312, 330
Friederich Wilhelm II of Prussia.. 334
Friederich Wilhelm III, King of
Prussia 401, 463
Friederich Wilhelm rv v King of
Prussia 466
620
INDEX
Galicia
Abolition of serfdom. 1848. .465-466
Austrian Rule in 402-403
Conquest of, by the Armies of
the Duchy of Warsaw, 1809
382-384
Home Rule of, 1866, 528, 540-541 .
Literature, Art and Sciences . . . 537
Organic Development 532-537
Representation in Austrian Par-
liament, 1848 469
Russian Administration during
the War 687
Ruthenian Problem in 541-545
Slaughter of Galician Gentry by
the peasants, 1846 465
Gallus, Chronicle of the XII Cen-
tury 57
Gapon, Russian Priest 547
Garibaldi 474, 483
Gdansk (Danzig) 233, 345, 377
Gedymin, Ruler of Lithuania, 1315-
1341 68
George of Sanok, Polish Human-
ist 103
German Settlements in Poland. . 35-39
German Occupation of Poland,
1915 591-592,607
Gibbons, H. A., quoted VI
Glinski, Michael, Prince 129
"Globus Jagellonicus" 144-145
Glogow (Glogau), Defense of, 1109 43
'Glos Warszawy" quoted 605
Gnesen (Gniezno) 6, 21
Golitisin, Russian General 383
Golomb Confederacy, 1672 264
Goluchowskl, Agenor, Count,.. 528, 540
Goplo, Lake of 6-7
Gorchakoff, Prince, Russian Vice-
roy of Poland 471-472, 477. 481
GoSlickl, Bishop of Posen 103
Grabiec, J., quoted 417
Gregory VII Hildebrand, Pope 25
Gregory IX, Pope 46
Grey, Lord, Statesman. ... 399, 460-461
Great Poland, (Major Polonia), a
Principality, 30, 99
Confederacy 281
Gregory XVI, Pope 444
Grochov, Battle of, 1831 434, 436
Grodno, Treaty of, 1432 86
Diet of 1793 346, 349
Grody 9, 37
Grottger, Arthur, Painter 511
Grudzinska, Joan 415
Grudzinski, Charles 250
Grunwald, Battle of, 1410 82-83
Grzymultowskl, Agreement, 1686. 274
Gustavus Adolphus, King of
Sweden 187-188
H. K. T 625
Hadziacz, Agreement at, 1658 256
Handelsman, M., quoted 380
Hapsburg, Ernest, Candidate to
the Throne of Poland, 1573,
167, 180
Hapsburgs, Relations with Zyg-
munt III 179-180
Harley, J. H., quoted VI, S01-603
Hauke, Joseph, Commander of the
Polish Revolutionary Forces,
1863 494
Henry II of Bavaria, German Em-
peror 19
Henry III, German Emperor 22
Henry V, German Emperor 43
Henry Probus, Duke of Cracow,
1289-1290 40
Hill, David Jayne, quoted 356-357
Hohenzollern, Louis, Elector of
Brandenburg 273
Holland, Alliance with Prussia
and Great Britain 332
Loans made to Poland 334
Holy League against Turkey 273
Honorius III, Pope 45
Horodlo, Treaty of, 1413 83
Hosius, Bishop of Warmia 151
Humanism in Poland, XV Century
102-106
Hungary, War with, 1132-1135... 44
Union with Hungary for the
Liberation of the Balkan
Slavs, 1443 92-93
Part of, taken by Austria 278
Hunyadi, John, Hungarian Pa-
triot 92-93, 101
Hussitism in Poland 91-92
Igelstrom, Russian Ambassador,. 349
Incompatibilia, Law, 1504 127
Independence, Poland's, Proclama-
tion of, November 5, 1916, Ne-
gotiations 601-602
Act of the Central Empires 603
Official Reply of Poland 604-605
Innocent X, Pope 239
Innocent XI, Pope 269
Ivan the Terrible, Tsar of Mus-
covy 151, 157-160, 167, 176
Jadwiga, 1384-1399 66-68
Jadzwings, Early Settlements.... 1
Conquest by Casimir the Just.. 45
Jagmin, Organizer of a Polish
Legion in Turkey 532
Jagiello, Wladyslav, 1386-1434 .. .68-92
Jan of Stobnica, Prof, of the
Jagiellon University 146
INDEX
621
Jan I Olbracht, King of Poland
(1492-1501) 106-123
Jan II Kasimir, 1648-1688, King of
Poland 242-261
Jandolwicz, Father Mark 306
Janicki, Klemens, Poet-Laureate. 146
Janko of Charkov, Polish His-
torian of the XIV Century.. 57
Jaworski, Prof. Wladyslav Leo-
pold 565, 576
redlnia Act, 1430 89
Jerzmanowskl, Paul, Colonel 393
Jesuits in Poland 174
Dissolution of the Order. 315
Jews
Autonomy in Internal Affairs.. 221
Courts 204
Early Immigration to Poland.. 40
Forming of Jewish Regiment in
the Polish Revolution of 1794 352
Given full Rights of Citizenship
by Polish Council of State,
1861 479
Jews in Poland After the Revo-
lution of 1905 559-567
Limitation of Rights by Wislica
Statutes 99
Polish Boycott of 1912 564-565
Protection by Kazimir the Great 59
Protection by Statute of Kalisz 40
Restriction upon 221
Jez, Thomas Theodore, Pseud, of
Zygmunt Milkowski 620
John XV, Pope 24-25
John, King of Sweden 167
Joselowicz, Berek, Colonel, Com-
mander Under Kosciuszko 352, 561
Joseph II, Emperor of Austria,
308, 310, 330
Jundzill, Prof., of the University
of Wilno 318
K. S. S. N 571-572
Kachowsky, Russian General.... 343
Kalisz 40, 61
Kamienietz Podolski, Polish For-
tress 263, 278
Kaniow, Conference at, 1787.... 331
Karamzin, Russian Historian,
quoted 409
Kara Mustafa, Grand Vizier 270, 273
Karl Stefan, Austrian Archduke
605-606
Karlowice, Peace at, 1698 278
Kasprowicz, Jan, Poet 512
Kaunitz, Austrian Statesman . . . 312
Kazimir the Great, Polish King,
1333-1370 53-63
Kazimir Jagiellonczyk, King of
Poland, 1447-1492 94-101
Kazimir the Just (1177-1194), 31-
34, 45
Kazimir the Restorer,1040-1058. . . 23
Kettler, Ferdinand, Duke of Cour-
land 289-295
Kettler, Gothard Von 158-159
Kieff 19, 163, 260, 274
Kilinski, Jan, Leader of Warsaw
Populace in Kosciuszko's Time 351
Klaczko, Julian, Writer 561
Klonowicz, Sebastian, Writer 146
Kniaziewicz, Brigadier General
364-366, 374
Knights of the Cross, 45, 49-50, 53,
158-159
Knights of the Sword, 45, 85, 89,
158-159
Kochanowski, Jan, Poet 149
Konarski, Stanislav, Jurist. . .293-294
Koniecpolski, Stanislav, Hetman
188, 230
Konopka, General 37?
Kollontay, Hugo 316, 327-328
Konarski, Simon, Revolutionist.. 464
Konopnicka, Marya, Poetess 511
Kordecki 262
Korsak, Samuel, Patriot 315
Korwin, Matthew, of Hungary. . . . 101
Korzeniowski, Joseph, Writer. .484-485
Korybut, Zygmunt 91
Korytowski, Minister of Finance.. 640
Kosciuszko, Tadeusz, 344, 349, 351,
353, 364, 368, 372, 399, 460-461, 613
Kossakowski, Joseph, Bishop, 329,
343, 352
Kossakcwski, Simon 343, 349,352
Kostanecki, Chemist 539
Koszyce, Covenant of, 1374 66, 87
Privilege of 193
Kozietulski, Jan Leon Hipolit, 378-379
Krasicki, Ignatius, Bishop, Poet.. 326
Krasinski, Adam, Bishop 305
Krasinski, Michael 305
Krasinski, Vincent, Count, General
378, 421, 431
Krasinski, Zygmunt, Poet, 446-
447, 454-458, 460
Kraszewski, Joseph Ignace,
Writer 505-507
Kraushar, Alexander, Historian . . 661
Krauz, Kasimir, Socialist Writer 518
Krechetnikoff, Russian General.. 343
Kremienetz, Lyceum 443
Kromer, Martin, Historian 160
622
INDEX
Kronenberg, Baron, Polish Banker 561
Kropotkln, Peter, Prince, quoted
491-493, 513
Krukowiecki, Jan, Count 440-441
Kruszwica, Town of 6
Krysiak Case 542-543
Kujawy 49, 55
Kukiel, M., quoted, 362-363, 378, 394
Kunowski, W., Member of the
Provisional State Council.... 607
Kurnatowski, General 431
Lada, Goddess of Order and
Beauty 10
Lafayette, Marquis 436
Lamartine, French Poet 459
Lambert, Charles, Count, Viceroy
of Poland 481
Land Owners' Credit Association,
1825 413
Lanskoy, Russian Senator. ... 390, 405
Laski, Jan, Archbishop of Gnesen 136
Laski, Jan, the Younger, Religious
Reformer 140
Laskowski, Scientist 539
Lauer, Bernard, quoted 566
Lebrun, French Artist 323
Ledochowski, Stanislav, General.. 284
Ledochowski, Cardinal 523
Legions, Polish, 361-368, 372-379,
388-395, 467, 470, 532, 573-576,
579, 581-585, 595-598, 608
Legnano, Battle of 365
Lelewel, Joachim, Historian, 318,
429, 434, 460
Lemberg (Lwfiw) 38
University of 537
Polytechnical School at 537
Lempicki, Michael, Member of the
Provisional State Council.... 607
Lenczyca, Council of, 1180 31
Leoben, Truce at, 1797 364
Leszek the Dark, Duke of Cracow,
1278-1288 40
Leszczynski, Stanislav, King of
Poland (1704-1710), 281-283
287, 289. 291-292
Letts, Early Settlements 1
Lewicki, Prof. A., quoted 341
Liberum Veto, 397, 300-301, 303, 340
Liebknecht, German Socialist
Writer 519
Lieven, Count, Russian Ambassa-
dor to England 460-461
Likowski, Bishop, quoted 4:45
Limanowski, Boleslav, Socialist
Writer 518
Lisoli, Austrian Ambassador .... 258
Literature (Polish), 146-150, 446-
458, 505-512, 562
Lithuania, 1, 46, 68-71, 77-80, 160-
163, 253, 260, 278-279, 439, 481-
482, 489-493, 4-94-500, 613-614
Litwaks 562-563
Litwinski, L., quoted 73
Livonia (Inflanty), 159, 187, 260,
281, 286, 489
Lizard Union 98
L6dz 515
Longueville, Saint Paul, Pretender
to the Throne of Poland. ... 262
Lorraine, Duke of, Austrian Can-
didate to the Throne of Po-
land 265-270
Louis XIV, King of France, 261-
263, 265, 268-270
Louis XV, King of France 286
Louis Phillippe, King of France
437, 460
Louis of Wurtemberg 342-343
Lubecki, Xavier, Prince, Finance
Minister of the Congressional
Kingdom 369, 412, 420
Lubienski, Wladyslav, Primate,
297, 382
Lublin, Union of, 1569 161-163, 256
Diet at 281, 481
Lubomirski, George, Marshal of
the Crown 25 J-260
Lubomirski, Theodore, Woyevoda
of Cracow 287
Ludwig, Emperor of Germany. .. .53
Ludwig, King of Poland, 1370-
1382, King of Hungary 64-66
Lukasinski, Valerian, Major,
Founder of the Patriotic Soci-
ety of Warsaw 418-422, 431
Lun6ville, Peace at, 1801, 366, 368-369
Lutics, Slavic Tribe on the Baltic,
Conquest of, by Boleslav the
Wrymouthed 43
Lutsk, Battle of, 1431 85
Lyszczynski, Kasimir 275
Macieyowice, Battle at, 1794... 353
Madalinski, Brigadier General,
under Kosciuszko 349
Madeyski, Minister 540
Mahmed IV, of Turkey 260
Malachowski, Stanislav, States-
man 328, 332-333, 373, 381
Malborg, Capital of the Knights
of the .Cross 50
Mantua, Surrender of 365
Marchlewskl, Chemist 539
INDEX
623
Marie Antoinette, Austrian Arch-
duchess 273
Marie Louise de Gonzague, Second
Wife of Wladyslav IV 239, 265
Maria Theresa, Austrian Empress
308, 311
Marzanna, Goddess of Death 10
Massalski, Bishop 315, 319, 352
Mateyko, Jan, Painter 511
Matthew of Miechow, Medical Sci-
entist 77
Matuszewicz, Polish Minister.... 388
Maximillian, Brother of Emperor
Rudolph II 178
Mazepa, Hetman of the Cossacks, 282
Mazovia, a Principality of Po-
land 30, 45, 46, 53, 131, 253
Mazurs, Early Settlements 6
Mecklenburg, Conquest of, by
Boleslav the Wrymouthed. ... 43
Merwin, Berthold, quoted 597
Metternich, Prince, Austrian
Statesman 391, 399, 402
Michael, Grand Duke of Russia.. 439
Meyet, Leopold, Writer 561
Mickiewicz, Adam, Polish Poet,
319. 366, 446-451, 460, 466-467,
562, 570, 613
Mielnik Privilege, 1501 126
Mieroslawski, Ludwik 464-467, 483
Mieszko I, Prince, 960-982 A. D.
12-16
Mikulicz-Radeckl 539
Military Organization of Poland,
Secret 592, 600
Milkowski, Z. See: Jez, T. T.
Milyukov, Paul, Attitude Toward
Polish Question 586, 610
Mlodzieyowski, Bishop 315
Mochnacki, Maurice, Patriot, 423,
430-431, 460
Modjeska, Helena, Actress, quoted 500
Modlin 441
Modrzewski, Andrzej Frycz, Po-
litical Writer 146
Moldavia, Recognition of Polish
Sovereignty. .71, 102, 274, 278, 310
Mondet, French General 384
"Moniteur Polonais," quoted 608
Moniuszko, Stanislav, Composer.. 509
Montbrun, French General 378
Montelupi, Sebastian 116
Morawskl, Bar Confederate, 306
Morawski, Theophile 434
Morstin, Count Louis, quoted.... 581
Morflll, W. R., quoted, 168-169, 437-438
Morsztyn, Zbigniew, Writer 256
Muenchengraetz, meeting of Em-
perors at 463
Miinnich, Russian Field Marshal.. 289
Mukhanoff, Russian Administrator
of Poland 471, 477
Murat, French Field Marshal 373
Muravioff, Russian (Governor) of
Poland . .493, 498-499
Muscovy, Wars with Poland:
1522 133
1606 185-186
1654-1656 248
1658-1667 256-257
13 Year Truce with Poland, 1667 260
War, 1711 283
Naplerski, Kostka, Leader of
Peasants' Uprising 246
Napoleon Bonaparte, 361-362, 364,
366-368, 372-380, 382-394, 585
Napoleon, Code of 379-382
Napoleon III 470, 474, 488
Naruszewicz, Adam, Bishop, His-
torian 326
National Democratic Party, 521,
557-559, 561-566, 578, 579, 589
National Workmen's Union 558
Neapolitan Sums 270
Neminem Captivabimus, Nisi Jure
Victum (Law of 1430), 89, 336, 408
Nencki, Marcell, Scientist 539
Neuburg, Duke of 265
Neustadt Conference, 1770 310
Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia, 415,
421-424, 432-433, 461-463, 471, 593
Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia.... 546
Nicholas, Russian Grand Duke
and Generalissimo of the
Army Manifesto 578, 586
Nicholas VI, Pope 96
Niemcewicz, Julian Ursyn, His-
torian 429, 461
Niemoyowski, Bonawentura, 441,
458-459
Niemoyowski, Vincent 433
Niemoyowski, Waclaw, Provisional
Marshal of the Crown, Grand-
son of Bonawentura Niemo-
yowski 607
Niemieza, Treaty of, 1656 254
Nieszawa, Statutes of, 1454 99
Nihil Novi (Law of 1505) 127, 195
Nissa Conference, 1769 310
Nobility of Poland, 86-87, 129, 208-
210, 250, 279, 289
Northern War, 1700-1721 279-283
Novosiltsoff, Russian Plenipoten-
tiary, 405, 408, 411, 417, 420, 423
Nusbaum, Prof. Joseph 561
624
INDEX
Obertin, Victory at, 1531 ........ 133
Oginski, Michael Kasimir, Prince
Lithuanian Grand Hetman,
322, 361, 369, 387
Oginski, Confederacy Against Sa-
Piehas ................... 278-279
OleSnicki, Zbigniew, Bishop of
Cracow ........... 90-92, 96-97, 99
Oliva, Peace of, 1660 ---- 255, 257, 280
Olszowski, Bishop .............. 262
Opalinski, Christopher .......... 250
Order of the Cross, 45-46, 50, 59,
78-86, 98-101, 127
Order of the Sword . . , ....... 45
Orloff, Russian Admiral .......... 308
Orzechowski, Stanislaw, Writer.. 146
Orzeszkowa, Eliza, Novelist, 507-
508, 562
Oscik, George .................. 172
Ossolinski, George, Chancellor... 241
Ostrolenka, Battle at, 1794.... 349, 439
Ostrorog, Jan, Senator ...... 103, 137
Ostrowski, Bishop .............. 315
Otto I of Saxony ............... 12
Otto III, German Emperor ...... 16
Otwinowski, Erazm, Writer ...... 256
P- P. S ...................... 518
Pac Family ................ 259,265
Palmerston, Lord ---- . ....... 437, 460
Pan-Germanism ................. 613
Pan-Slavism ............... 558, 613
Panin, Russian Statesman ....... 311
Paris Peace Conference, 1856.... 470
Parliamentarism in Poland, of Be-
ginnings .............. 9 f 31, 35
Paskiewich, Russian General, 427,
440-441, 444, 461
Patkul ......................... 278
Patriotic Club .............. 430, 432
Paul of Brudzev, Rector of Cra-
cow University ............. 104
Paul I, Tsar of Russia, 355, 364,
368-369
Peasant Party in Galicla ...... 621
Peasants in Poland, 99, 106-108,
175-176, 216-219, 246, 349-351,
402, 465-466, 491-494
People's Party ........... 517-521, 577
Pereyaslavl, Treaty of, 1654 ...... 248
PSrier, Casimir ................. 458
Perun, God of Storms ............ 10
Peter of Kolomea ............... 139
Peter, Tsar of Russia, 278-279, 281-290
Pgtiet, French Minister of War.. 361
Petryllo, Moldavian Hospodar ____ 133
Philaret Fraternity 419
Philomath Fraternity 419
Piast Dynasty... 7, 31, 64, 193
Pilsudski, Joseph, 576, 598-601,
606, 607, 613
Pius VII, Pope 413
Pius IX, Pope 467, 488, 497-498
Plater, Emily, Countess 439
Plehve, Russian Premier 546
Plock 38
Podhayce, Battle at, 1698 278
Podiebrad, George 101
Podlasie 163, 494
Podolia .....55, 263, 378, 489
Podoski, Gabriel, Primate 302, 308
Polanie, Early Settlements 5,7
Polanov, Peace of 1634 230
"Polish Gazette," daily, quoted... 590
"Polish League" in Switzerland,. 520
Polish Parliamentary Club at Vi-
enna 541, 580
Polish Question
International Status of 585
Attitude of Russia 585, 586
Attitude of Allies 586
Polish School Mother 551-552
Polish Socialist Party, 547, 549,
577, 598
Poltava, Battle of, 1709 282
Polytechnic Institute of Warsaw
591, 595
Pomerania (Pomorze) 7, 27
Conquest by Boleslav the Wry-
mouthed, 1109 42
Conquest by Knights of the
Cross 49-50
Poniatowski, Joseph, Prince, 342,
344, 370, 373, 382, 384, 387-388,
390-395, 585
Poniatowski, Michael, Primate
King's Brother 330, 352
Poniatowski, Stanislav August
(1764-1795), 282, 292, 296, 298-355
Ponifiski, Adam Lodzia, 314,319,
329, 353
Poplawski, Jan, Publicist 521
Possevino, Antonio 176
Posner, S., quoted 515
Potemkin, Russian Statesman.... 331
Potocki, Felix, Hetman, 278, 329, 343
Potocki, Ignacy 328
Potocki, Joseph 521
Potocki, Nicholas, Field Hetman.. 237
Potocki, Stanislav Kostka, Minis-
ter of Education, 328, 380, 413-414
INDEX
625
Poznan (Posen). 6, 12, 397, 401-
402, 466, 468, 469, 521-527
Praga, Slaughter of, 1794 353
Prague, Convention at 39
Prazmowski, Primate 264
Provisional Polish Government of
1916-1917 605-609
Prus, Boleslav, Pseud, of Alexan-
der Glowacki, Writer 507-508
Prussia, 1, 45, 98, 131-132, 160, 163,
278-279, 286, 290-291, 295, 300,
308-309, 313-314, 332-334,346,
349, 352-355, 358, 372, 375, 392,
397, 401-402, 591
Przemysl 59
Przemyslav, 1295-1296 47-48
Przybyszewski, Stanislav, Writer 512
Przyluski, James, Jurist 150
Ptolemy, Cracow Edition of, 1512 145
Pulaski, Joseph, Leader of the
Bar Confederacy 305
Pulaski, Kasimir 305, 308
Pulawy 370, 484, 548
Puzyrewski, Russian General,
quoted 426
Reymont, Wladyslav, Writer 512
Reytan, Thaddeus, Patriot 315
Richelieu, Cardinal 231-232
Rokitna, Charge of, by Polish
Uhlans 597
Romanoff, Michael, Tsar of Mus-
covy 186
Rostworowski, Count W., Member
of the Provisional State Coun-
cil 607
Roumania 71
Rudzki 639
Rugen, Island of, 10, 11, 27, 43, 44
Rumiantseff, Russian General .... 308
Russian Revolution 610
Rutowski, Tadeusz, Mayor of
Lemberg 587, 588
Ruthenia, 55, 59, 160-163, 188-189,
190-191, 481, 541-545, 613-614
Rydel, Lucyan, Poet and Dramat-
ist 581
Rymkiewicz, General 365
Rzewuski, Severin, 303, 329, 342-343
Rzewuski, Simon 329
Rzewuski, Waclaw, Field Hetman 303
Raclawice, Battle at, 1794 349
Radegast (Ancient Deity), Pro-
tector of Merchants and Guests 10
Radom Confederacy, 1767. .. .302-303
Radzieyowski, Jerome 249
Radziwill, Antoni, Prince, First
Governor General of the
Duchy of Posen 401
Radziwill, Barbara, Queen of Po-
land, Wife of Zygmunt II Au-
gust 153
Radziwill, Charles, Prince 298, 302
Radziwill, Janus 247, 250
Radziwill, Michael, Prince, 330,
434, 436
Rakoczy, Hungarian Commander. 255
Ramsay, Russian General 487
Rapperswil, St. Gallen, Switzer-
land, Polish Museum 520
Raszyn, Battle of, 1809 382
Red Russia 65
Reds (Political Party in Poland)
473-477, 481, 485-486, 493
Reformation (Protestant) ....137-152
Reichenbach, Convention of, 1790 337
Repnin, Russian Ambassador to
Revolutionary National Govern-
ment of 1915 577
Rey. Nicholas, Satirist 146-147
Poland 301, 303, 306
St. Otto, the Mission of, to Pom-
erania 43-44
St. Peter's Pence, Annual Tax 25
Samogitia, see Zmudz
Samo-Sierra, 1808 378-379
Sandomir 30, 151, 280-282
Sapieha, Kasimir Nestor 332
Sapieha, Leon, First Marshal of
the Galician Diet 532
Sarbiewski, Matthew, Poet-Laurete 102
Saragossa, Siege of 378
Sare, Dr. Joseph, Vice-President
of the City of Cracow 566
"School Mother"
Organized in Galicia, 1882 507
In Kingdom of Poland, 1905 552
Schwarzenberg, Commander of the
Austrian Army 390
Sciegenmy, Father 464
Seklucyan, Jan, Representative of
Luther in Poland 139
Senate, Formation of 100, 199
Seniorate (Polish Laws of Inheri-
tance) 26
Sergius, Russian Grand Duke.... 546
Shooyski, Basil, Russian Tsar.. 185
Sicirtski, Wladyslaw 247
Siegmund, King of Bohemia. .. .90-91
Siemaszko, Uniate Bishop 445
Sieniawski, Adam, Hetman 283
Sienkiewicz, Henryk 508-509
626
INDEX
Sieroszewskl, Waclav, Novelist,
512, 581, 582
Sievers, Count, Bussian Ambassa-
dor 346-349
Siewlersk 260
Silesia, Principality of Poland, 30,
53, 101, 295, 527
Simkhovitch, Prof. Vladimir G.,
quoted 461-462
Skarga, Peter 181-183
Sklodowska Curie, Marie, Chemist 539
Skrzynecki, Jan, General, 393, 434,
436, 440
Slaves in Poland 9, 57
Slavs 1, 5, 10-11
Slowackl, Juljusz, Poet, 446-447,
451-454, 460
Smolensk 133, 260, 280
Smolensk!, W., quoted 253, 290-
291, 413
Smolka, Francis 484, 529
Sniadecki, Andrew, Scientist .... 318
Sniadecki, Jan, Mathematician... 316
Sobienki, Alexander, Son of the
King 281
Sobleski, James, Son of the King
273-274, 276, 281
Sobieski, Jan, King of Poland
(1674-1696), 259-261, 263-275
Socialism in Poland 518-521
Society of the Friends of Science 443
Society of Elementary Education 318
"Sodalitas Literaria Vistulana" at
Cracow, 1489 102
Sokolnicki, Michael 365, 388, 394
Sokolowski, Prof. August, quoted,
180, 226, 275, 312, 373, 442
"Sokols" (Nests of Falcons) .... 534
Soltyk, Kayetan, Bishop of Cra-
cow 303
Soltys 39 58
Sowinska, Funeral of Mme 475
Sowinski, General 441
Spytek of Melsztyn, Leader of
Confederacy in the Reign of
Wladyslav III 92
Stackelberg, Russian Ambassador
at Warsaw 323
Staff, Leopold, Poet 512
Starosta 8
Staszyc, Stanislav, Statesman, 316,
327-328, 380
State Council, Provisional, of Po-
land 605-610
Statute of Tolerance, 1562 151
Sternbach, Prof 561
Stettin, City of 43
Stoczek, Battle at, 1831 427
Stolypin, Russian Premier 556
Strangways, Fox, quoted 368
Strug, Andrew, Novelist 581
Strug, Joseph, Physician 150
Sturmdorf, Agreement at, 1635.. 233
Strzelecki, Polish Explorer 539
Stwosz, Vit, Sculptor 112-113
Sudermania, Duke of 183
Sulkowski, Joseph 361, 393
Supreme National Committee, 580,
591, 593
fcuvorov, Russian Field Marshal,
312, 353, 365
Sweden, 187-188, 231-233, 249-255,
278-283
Swiatowit (Indra) the Slavic
Zeus 10-11
Swidrygiello, Grand Duke of
Lithuania, 1430-1432 85
Swientochowski, Alexander, Pub-
licist 507-508
Szaniawski, Minister of Education 414
Szczygiel, Bar Confederate 306
Szegedin, Peace at, 1444 93
Szela, Jacob 465
Szeptycki, Count, Greek Catholic
Metropolitan of Galicia. . . 587, 588
Pzymonowicz, S. Poet 146
Talko-Hryncewicz, Prof, quoted.. 4
Talleyrand, French Statesman, 399, 613
Targowica Confederacy 343-346
Tarlo, Adam 289
Tarnowski, Jan, Grand Hetman of
of the Crown 133
Tarnowski, St., quoted 76
Tartars, 35-36, 127, 133-135, 248,
260-261
Tetmayer, Kazimir, Poet 512
Thirty Years' War 186
Thorn (Torun) 100, 345, 377
"Three Black Eagles," Union of,
1732 286
Tilsit, Treaty of, 1807 375
Towianski, Andrew, Philosopher
450, 453
Traugutt, Romuald 493-494
Travendal, Peace at, 1700 279
Trembecki, Stanislav, Poet 326
Tromba, Nicholas, Archbishop of
Gnesen 90
Turkey, 101, 186-187, 230, 239, 260,
263-265, 268-274, 277-278, 283
308, 310-311, 330-332, 470
Tyniec, Battle of, 1773 312
Tyzenhaus, Anthony, Patron of
Industries 321
INDEX
627
t'chanski, Archbishop, First In-
terrex 164
Ufero-Flnnish Peoples, Early Set-
tlements 1-2
Ukraine, 133-135, 234-236, 248,
257, 260, 263, 268-269. 274, 278,
282, 470
Ulrich von Jungingen, Master of
the Order of the Cross 80
Uniate Church, 257, 281-282, 444-
446, 548
Valois, Henry, King of Poland 167-169
Varna, Battle of, 1444 94
Vienna, Battle of, 1683 270-273
Agreement at, 1772 311
Congress of, 1815, 395, 417, 420,
593, 607
Volhynia 55, 71, 163, 489
Voyciech of Brudzev, Astronomer
76-77
Waclaw, King of Bohemia and
of Poland 48
Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie,
quoted 159
Wallachia 71, 127, 274, 278, 310
War Relief 694
Warsaw,
163, 166, 174, 214, 279, 284-285,
292, 299, 314, 345, 351, 353,
355, 368, 375-395, 381, 382-384,
388-390, 418-422, 443, 479, 485,
503, 514-517, 547, 553, 567, 586,
589, 591
Warsaw University, 413, 480, 547,
553, 591. 595
V/awrzecki, Dictator, Successor of
Kosciuszko 360
Wawrzyniak, Father 523
Welles, God of Cattle 10
West Russia 163, 313-314
Westphalia, Peace of, 1648 249
White Hill, Battle of, 1620 187
White Russia 489, 613
Whites (Political Party in Po-
land) 473-474, 481-482, 486
Wiec (Popular Assembly) 9
Wielawa, Agreement at, 1657.... 254
Wielopolski, Alexander, Margrave,
474-475, 478-487
Wieluri, Edict of, 1424 91
Wilhelm II German Emperor. . . . 525
Wilno 344, 351, 353, 498-499
Wilno UniversHy, 317-318, 416-417,
420, 443
Wilson, Woodrow 609-610
WiSlica Statute, 1347, 57, 58, 63, 99
Wisniowiecki, Jeremiah. . 237, 241-243
Wifiniowiecki, Michael Korybut,
King of Poland (1669-1673)
262-265
Witold, Duke of Lithuania, 79-82,
84-85, 91
Wladyslav Herman (1070-1102) 25-26
Wladyslav Jagiello, King of Po-
land 68-91
Wladyslav III, King of Poland,
1434-1444 89-91
Wladyslav Lokietek, Prince of
Great Poland, 1306-1333. . .49-53
Wladyslav, King of Hungary and
Bohemia 122
Wladyslav IV, King of Poland,
1632-1648 224, 230-234, 236-248
Wodzicki, Stanislav, Count, Presi-
dent of the Cracow Republic 400
Wohl, Treasurer of the Revolu-
tionary Government, 1863 .... 561
W'ola (Suburb of Warsaw) 441
Wolin, Establishment of Bishopric
at, in Pomerania, 1130 44
Women of Poland, Work of, Dur-
ing War 594
Woyt 38
Wybicki, Joseph, patriot, 303, 361, 372
Wyhowski, John, Leader of the
Cossacks 256
Wyslouch, Leader, Peasant Party
of Galicia 521
Wysocki, Peter 422-423, 468
Wyspianski, Stanislav, Poet and
Painter 511-512, 537
Zakopane (Mountain Resort) 533
Zaliwski, Colonel 463
Zaluski, Andrew, Bishop and Pub-
licist 292
Zaluski, Joseph, Bishop and Pub-
licist 292, 303
Zaluski Public Library 291-292
Zamoyski, Andrew, Count, Leader
of Nobility, 323, 472-473, 478-
479, 481
Zamoyski, Jan, Chancellor 173, 178
Zan, Thomas, Leader of the Wilno
University Students 419-420
Zaremba, Bar Confederate 308
Zawisza, Patriot 463
Zayonczek, Joseph, Viceroy of Po-
land 372, 410-411, 417
Zborowski, Peter 131
Zborowski, Samuel 172
Zebrzydowski, Leader of Rebel-
lion 184
Zegocki, Christopher 251
628
INDEX
Zeromski, Stefan, Novelist. .446, 512
Zimorowicz, Poet 146
Zmudz (Samogitia) ...1, 80, 192, .494
Z61kiewski, Stanislav, Hetman, 185-187
Zoravno, Peace of, 1676 268
Zulawski, Jerzy, Dramatist, 512
513-581
Zygmunt I (1506-1548), the Old,
King of Poland 127-152
Zygmunt II August (1548-1572),
King of Poland .151-164
Zygmunt III, 1687-1632, King of
Poland 177-191
Zygmunt, Grand Duke of Lithu-
ania 86
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